Cannibal Love
by CannibaLilly
Summary: The book of occult got stolen and suddenly the elementary is full of zombie-like cannibals. Conan & Co have to find a remedy before it's too late and the cannibals find out how tasty they are. A Conan / Shinichi x Alice / Lilly FF!
1. Prolog & School

_**Cannibal Love**_

_**Info: **__Hey minna =) Since I saw „Boy eats girl" a movie written by Derek Landy x3 I needed to write a zombie FF! And because all my friends call me cannibal-chan I came up with this title :3_

_M for cannibals!_

_Btw this story contains LillIchi (so Lilly/Alice x Shinichi/Conan) if you don't like self-mades pls don't read and if you don't know Lilly/Alice yet pls read my FF "The beginning" ;) thanks a lot_

_This story won't steal anything from LEP-Surface's story, which is very brilliant btw :D But since he doesn't have any time to continue his story at the moment I wanted to start my own Zombie-FF. Different from his which is very serious and creepy mine just wants to be funny and romantic, but in a creepy way :} hehe and now enjoy!_

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><p><strong><em><span>Cannibals like Prologs<span>_**

[Ayumi]

„Yes! Go Yaiba!" the little girl cheered and raised her hands like it would help her hero to give his best. Ayumi loved the hour between homework and bed when Yaiba entered her life and fought for justice, but suddenly this hour got interrupted by a woman appearing in the TV.

"Sumimasen, but we need to interrupt the current program for some news." Ayumi dropped her hands disappointedly. The woman put on a serious look and cleared her throat. "Just some hours ago the museum of occult in Beika recognized a robbery. Seemingly nothing got stolen, except an old book. This book is very valuable and the police asks everyone to keep their eyes open. Most likely the thief tries to sale it to you. In case you see this book…" the woman stopped and a picture of a black book with golden letters and symbols on it appeared "please call 911 and…" the woman spoke on but Ayumi didn't care anymore. She just saw that it was about time to head for bed and that means Yaiba was over. She sighed and got up from the sofa to switch of the TV.

"Who would steal a book like this? I couldn't read a single word… maybe it's another language" the girl wondered while she made her way over to the bathroom.

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><p><strong><em><span>Chapter 1: Cannibals like school<span>_**

[Conan]

"2x2 is 4. 3x3 is 9. 4x4 is" Conan and the other children echoed after Kobayashi-sensei. Bored he panned the room. All those children looked so enthusiastic while practicing the multiplication table for the millionth time. "6x6 is 36" Conan glared over to Ai and Alice, the girls who were sharing his doom… actually. In real both were exchanging glances and both trying their best not to burst out in laughter. Conan rolled his eyes and glared up to the board again. "10x10 is" on the one hand Conan was glad that Alice and Ai became friends with each other, but on the other hand it could be very annoying. _"Girls"_ he thought shirty and did his best not to fall asleep.

At least it was half past nine p.m. and the sun had already set, _"maybe no one would recognize me sleeping"_ Conan thought half amused. The whole school had a special event today. Last Friday they had a day off and in return they had today, a week later, a sleepover in school with evening lessons. So now the whole right wall was covered with convolute sleeping bags which were calling for Conan and they were calling loudly. He suppressed a yawn; the last three nights he'd spent going through all newspaper articles he could get about this robbery of the book of occult. First he'd thought it has been a normal robbery, but something caught his attention. One of the security men from the museum said he had seen the shadow of the thief and he had been small, very small, just some inches taller than Conan in his child-version. This would at least explain how he could enter the well guarded museum; he could just have hid and waited till everyone was gone, a small person could easily be overlooked.

Finally the yawn made its way out of Conan's mouth. It had no sense to keep pondering about this right now, he decided. He just wanted to get some sleep and finally escape this never-ending math lesson. "This is soooo boring!" a voice suddenly appeared and first Conan had to make sure it wasn't him who had accidentally spoken, but it wasn't. The speaker was a boy from behind, he was new in their class and should just stay for some month till he and his family move away again, his name was Akira or… "Akito!" Kobayashi-sensei shouted and the whole class was suddenly watching the dark-haired boy who gave Kobayashi-sensei a provoking glance. "But it's true, how can anyone still don't get it, I'm just here since a week and we must have done this for the hundredth time" Akito continued complaining.

Conan smirked, it was funny how this little boy just said what had been on Conan's mind for ages, but now Kobayashi-sensei had to rebuke him and this would separate Conan even further from his sleep. While Conan threw another longing glance at the sleeping bags Kobayashi-sensei had already walked over to Akito's table, leaned her hands onto it and started to tell him a lot about why his classmates are maybe a little slower than he is, but Akito just gave her an angry look and then he threw something at her.

Within the class a crackling atmosphere spread and no one dared to make a sound. Never anyone _threw_ something at a teacher before. Conan tried to spot what exactly Akito had thrown. Kobayashi-sensei was coughing and since nothing had hit the floor Conan came to the conclusion it had been some sort of powder. Still coughing, because she had this powder in mouth and eyes she left the classroom and Akito was handed over to the court of his class mates who were all starting to tell him how wrong he acted till three minutes later everyone punished him with silence. Conan hadn't said anything, of course he was annoyed too, but throwing something at Kobayashi-sensei was just over the top. Finally he asked "what did you threw at her anyways?" and glared at Akito who was looking like a proud martyr. "It was a magical powder" he replied with a smirk and before Conan could ask something else the class door opened and the teacher from 1c entered the room. He told them Kobayashi-sensei would need some time in the bathroom and they all should get ready for bed and prepare their sleeping bags. Which everyone did while they talked about how sorry they're for Kobayashi-sensei.

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><p>[Alice]<p>

Alice smoothed the bed-head of her sleeping back and glared over to the other children. Most of them were done and now slowly crawling into their bags. Also the detective boys were done and were now whispering, most likely about Akito. Alice gave the dark-haired boy a sad look. She minded his attack on Kobayashi-sensei as much as the other children, but in her live, where she had often been bullied, she somehow understood that many people have their reasons for doing the bad things they do. Thos reasons weren't very smart or nice, but to them they appear logical and now she wondered what Akito's reasons were.

While thinking this she turned her head to the place Conan should put his sleeping bag at. Maybe he was just thinking about the same she pondered when she saw there was no bag prepared yet. Conan was sitting on the floor and, seemingly, fighting against something that looked like a huge stuff-snake. She smirked "may I help you?" she asked without trying to hide her smirk. Conan replied with an annoyed glance that was half covered by his sleeping bag which was wrapped around him. Alice snickered and got up to help her friend out of the bag. With a smooth push she unraveled Conan's sleeping back onto the floor and smiled "voila" she said and saw Conan sinking down on his bag. The fact that he didn't complain about her helping him told her how tired he really was.

Happily she sank down on her own sleeping back next to him, she knew he hadn't slept for days because this book-robbery had caught his attention but sometimes she forgot he was also just a person who needed sleep and everything, it was easy to forget about this since he was always acting that… strong. Alice smiled at Conan who had already closed his eyes, with his glasses still on as a voice appeared next to Alice. "Say, isn't Kobayashi away for way too long?" it was Ai's voice and it sounded slightly worried. Though Ai would never admit it Alice knew she liked Kobayashi-sensei as much as everyone does.

"Yes… you're right." Conan mumbled to Alice's surprise since she thought he had fallen asleep. But now he got up, unwillingly adjusting his glasses and then he raised his voice. "Ne Akito-kun, you said you threw _magical_ powder at Kobayashi-sensei… what did you mean by that?" Conan didn't have to raise his voice too much. Akito had unfurled his sleeping bag close to him, Ai, the detective-boys and Alice since no one else seemed to accept him anymore.

For a moment the boy look at Conan, Ai and Alice… then he spoke "it means what it means. I didn't really get what it does, but the book said it is the most magical powder on this planet to defeat enemies." Conan, Ai and Alice raised their eyebrows in sync. Neither Conan nor Ai believed in magic, but Alice does, she frowned for another reason "you throw 'the most magical powder on this planet to defeat enemies' at your _teacher_?" Alice asked and Ai sighed "let's say he just threw some powder at Kobayashi-sensei." Ai said and before Alice could argue with her about magic Conan interrupted them "which book?" he asked sharply.

Akito avoided his look "w… well a book… just a book." Alice glared over to Akito and back to Conan who suddenly looked very serious "the book of occult, right?"

Maybe he asked it just because he really wanted to find this book or maybe because his detective-intuition told him it was this book, no matter why, but somehow Conan had guessed it right; Alice saw Akito slowly nodding.

"You mean a child was the book-thief?" Alice asked confused. "Yeah, only a child could hide so the museum guards didn't see him." Conan replied without looking away from Akito with a released smile. Seemingly he was just happy he had solved the case that had kept him away from sleep since so long. "So Kobayashi-sensei is cursed?" three voices suddenly asked in sync. Conan, Ai and Alice turned around and recognized that Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta had overheard their conversation. "Yup and she deserved it!" This statement of Akito was answered by Genta and Mitsuhiko shouting at him, but Ayumi just got up and with a worrying look she walked over to the door.

"Ayumi?" Conan asked and the girl turned around to her friends "if Kobayashi-sensei is cursed she has to feel horrible, I'll have a look after her." With these words Ayumi walked out of the class room and left her friends looking at each other. "But she's not…" Conan begun, but Alice interrupted him "we should follow her" she decided and got up "ok Ai-neechan?" Ai nodded and got up, too. "Should we follow you, too?" Mitsuhiko asked, already half standing. "Well, if you want to enter the ladies' room, you're welcome" Ai said following Alice and leaving behind a highly-red Mitsuhiko.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	2. Blood

**_Chapter 2: Cannibals like blood_**

_Most of you certainly have recognized my try to get the single titles of my chapters sound similar through my "Cannibals like…" beginning. I dunno if it annoys or thrills you, I myself kinda like it :} Anyways, this chapter will now contain some bloody and detailed parts which are the reason for the story's M-ness ;) Just thought I should warn chu_

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><p>[Ai]<p>

The three girls made their way over to the ladies' room, so that meant they had to walk through the corridor first. The whole school was dipped in silence and darkness and Ai recognized amused that such a simple fact could give even her the chills. But soon they reached the toilets and the feeling vanished. "I wonder what kind of curse it is and if she is alright…" Ayumi said with a low voice like she didn't want to interrupt the silence of the whole school. "Don't worry, you know what Conan always says there is nothing like magic or curses." Alice said to cheer the girl up. Ai smiled, she new Alice didn't believe in what she just said, most likely she was as scared as Ayumi was and so it was Ai who opened the door.

Inside the ladies' room it was bright, a buzzing lamp shone, but still Ai couldn't spot Kobayashi-sensei anywhere. "Senseiii!" Ayumi shouted, suddenly she didn't seemed to care about the silence anymore. "She's not here" Alice said looking around the room "maybe she's in a bathroom somewhere else, or she is already…" a moan interrupted Alice and widened her eyes. Also Ai didn't like the way this voice moaned. It sounded suffering and when suddenly a crack cut through the air, the three girls made some steps closer to each other.

Ai frowned. Actually the crack hadn't been that loud. It just interrupted the silence all around and that was what made it even creepier. "Hello?" Ai shouted, she decided that just staying here wasn't useful at all and maybe this voice needed help. "Hello!" she shouted again and finally something seemed to happen.

The girls slid even closer together as one of the toilet cabins opened up. A woman walked out, she looked pale and exhausted but she smiled. "Kobayashi-sensei!" Ayumi shouted and sounded really released. Ai felt Ayumi pressing against her arm so she pulled it away. Somehow it was cute how the girl wanted to hug her teacher just because she was away for some minutes. _"And because she thinks she got cursed"_ Ai thought smiling, but to her surprise Ayumi didn't ran up to Kobayashi-sensei, Alice stopped her. Ai turned her head around to her curly-haired friend who had put forth her hand to stop Ayumi, her look had turned serious and with a skeptical voice she asked "are you all right sensei?" Ai frowned and glared at Kobayashi-sensei again, this time she scanned her teacher more carefully. She looked exhausted, yes; and her smile had vanished after Alice question, but there were other things Ai had overlook. Kobayashi-sensei was pale, empty eyed, breathing heavily and ever and anon she made a weird sound; a cross between growling and moaning. And then Ai's gaze wandered up to the hands of her teacher. They were leaning against the toilet-door, like she needed it as a support, and they were red; trembling and red from blood.

Ai's eyes widened "what…?" she gasped but Alice didn't answered, she just reached out her hand a little more so she was standing now in front of Ayumi and Ai and slowly she started pushing them backwards, still facing Kobayashi-sensei, who was staring at them. "Do you see that?" Alice whispered into Ai's ear and for a split second her eyes went away from Kobayashi-sensei over to the floor in front of the toilet cabin and back to their teacher. Ai glared at the point Alice wanted to show her and felt her stomach tensing. She saw a shoe, a shoe and the part of a leg to be exact, the rest of the body was hidden in the cabin, but the blood from beyond the leg was not.

Ai clenched her teeth, how could she have overlooked it? Maybe, just like Ayumi, she was worried about her teacher too… and the fact to see her, had made her ignore her surroundings.

Before Ai had the chance to say anything Alice pushed open the door to the corridor and pushed her and Ayumi outside, then she thunked the door shut and with a sudden jump she shifted her whole weight on the door handle and moved her body till one could hear a loud 'crack'; she'd broken off the handle. Ai watched her friend doing that, she knew Alice's mother was a part of the black organization and she taught her daughter some stuff when she was small, but Alice never liked to use those tricks.

"Run!" she shouted and the three girls ran. "What was up with her?" Ai asked gasping while they were still rushing down the corridor "maybe this… foot was just hurt and she help… _it_." Ai asked, not knowing how she should deal with such a situation. "No!" Alice gasped back "there was blood, a whole lot of it. I doubt anyone survives loosing so much blood. If Kobayashi-sensei had found someone who is dead or that hurt she would have called for help or screamed, but she spent nearly half an hour at a toilet with a body. Usually I'd say that means she must have been the murderer, but… I mean it's Kobayashi-sensei we're talking about…"

Ai looked at Alice; sometimes she forgot that also she was a quite skilled detective, not as skilled as Edogawa-kun, but she was good. Finally the three of them had reached the class room of the 1B, hastily they opened the door and rushed inside, closing the door behind them.

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><p>[Conan]<p>

Conan leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes for a second. He had spent the last minutes to question Akito about his robbery. Seemingly the boy heard about the book from his parents and since they're moving away again soon he thought he could borrow it and give it back later. All in all he just wanted to use it against Kobayashi-sensei and return it later. Usually Conan had found out about this within a minute, but since Genta and Mitsuhiko kept interrupting Akito's story and Conan's questions it took him much longer, but now he was done and could rest for a moment. Desperately he tried to ignore another of Genta and Mitsuhiko's arguments against Akito and his attack on their teacher, and maybe because he slowly got used to Kogoro's snoozing he had to bear at home, he succeed. Slowly he felt his mind becoming dull and for some wonderful seconds he fall asleep until the door of the class room suddenly got smashed open and some people rushed in.

He sighed and opened his eyes again. He could see Ayumi, Ai and Alice leaning against the door, all three pale and breathing heavily. "Where is Kobayashi-sensei?" Genta asked before one of them could catch their breath and so the three just shook their heads. "Are you all right?" now it was Mitsuhiko who asked and again the girl shook their heads. Finally Ayumi was able to gasp "blood!" and now Conan felt wide awake, he jumped up and walked over to the girls. "What happened?" he asked calm but insisting, suddenly all his fatigue was gone and his mind seemed more alert than it did in days.

"We don't know" Ai said between two deep breaths "we just saw a lot of blood."

"And a foot!" Ayumi added with a shrill voice. Conan threw a confused glance to Alice who wiped a hand over hear forehead and started explaining how they found Kobayashi-sensei in the toilet, how she seemed to be unwell and then about the foot and all the blood and finally that they inferred that only their teacher could have been the killer.

At the end of her report Conan frowned. It was ridicules that Kobayashi-sensei would kill someone, but no matter how he looked at it, Alice's conclusions were right. Why would she have spent that much time with a body that was seriously hurt without calling for help? The only reason he could think of was that she needed time to hide evidence.

"Where is everyone?" a sudden question interrupted Conan's thoughts, Alice had asked it while looking around. Now Conan raised his head too and saw the classroom which was nearly empty. Only the detective boys, Akito, two girls, Chiyo and Haruka, and a boy called Ren who were already sleeping were left. "The others went over to the auditorium. They all wanted to watch a movie together but we stood here to wait for you and look after them." Conan explained and pointed at the three sleeping kids and Akito who's snoozed were too loud to be believable.

"And what are we doing now?" Ayumi asked with tears in her eyes. Her friends looked at the girl but different from the other times when Conan had seen her cry she didn't seemed to want anyone to cheer her up, she cried because she was just worried about her teacher and what she might have done. "Bring me there." Conan said, he needed to see it himself "NO!" Alice interrupted him with an angry look "didn't you listen to me? It could be dangerous."

He smiled, he was grateful for her worries but at the moment there was no time for that. "Just wait here, I mean it's Kobayashi-sensei. Why should she hurt anyone?" And with these words he walked past them and left the class room behind.

He knew Alice would want to follow him, but two things would make her stay. First she was now the adult and she had to take care of the children, of course Ai was there too but Conan knew Alice looked at her more like Ai was her younger sister. Second she was mad with him, she hated that he left her behind and when she was mad she wouldn't follow him. Conan felt kinda sorry for that while rushing through the corridor up to the ladies' room but he knew it would be the best if he just took a look at it himself with no one else to ask or worry.

After some moments of jogging Conan reached the toilets, he calmed his breath before he slowly opened the door. He threw a glance into the room and entered it. It was unnatural bright and a buzzing lamp kept disrupting the silence. Conan made some careful steps in and let the door clunk shut. He panned the room. It was tiled in white and pink and seemingly empty. Slowly he walked over to the washbasins which were extra made for the height of children so Conan suddenly stood in front of a dark-haired boy with glasses; he looked calm but tired.

Conan turned away from his reflection and made his way over to the cabins, deciding he would spent the whole next day in his bed to get the sleep he needed. A splashing sound appeared from beyond Conan and his moves froze. He looked down and saw himself standing in a puddle of half dried blood. Fast he turned around, he was alone. That gave him the time to examine the cabin the blood came out. Its door wasn't shut so it was impossible to overlook. The foot the girls had seen was connected to a body, the body of a man Conan had known since he was a child. It was the old janitor and obviously he was dead.

In his life Conan had seen many corpses and very few shocked him but this one was definitely one of them. Seemingly its ribcage had been opened… well more ripped open, half of the _stuff_ that had been within him was now spread on the floor and on his face a shocked expression was set, only his empty eyes were usual about this corpse and for a moment Conan was glad he could spare this to the others, even Ai and Alice. _"Kobayashi-sensei could have been shocked, maybe too shocked to call for help"_ Conan thought, and tried to explain why their teacher had spent more time than necessary with this body, while walking back to the washbasins. He opened the spigot and let the water run over his hands and take away the blood. By habit he had touched the corpse and now he had to make sure there were no bloodstains left on him, it would only make the others ask questions.

He threw a last peer into the mirror and saw something that made his blood run cold. The door to the corridor slowly opened; nearly carefully someone pushed it opened from the outside. He turned around to the door and went through his opportunities. Hiding? Asking questions? Fighting? All these seemed to be quite poor ways to get out of this, at least as long as he didn't knew _who_ was just coming in. By now the door had been fully opened, he could hear footsteps and whispering and then a hand grabbed edge of the door and a face appeared.

Conan saw the eyes of his opponent widening. "Don't scare me like that!" Alice shrieked but her face relaxed. To be honest he was it who was scared but he didn't want to admit it so he just threw an angry glare at Alice and asked "well, then why aren't you waiting for me as…"

"as you told me to?" she interrupted him pissed "because we were worried about you!" Conan raised an eyebrow and rushed over to the door to peek out "we?" he asked but before Alice had to answer he saw it, the detective boys, Akito and the other three children from their class were waiting outside, everyone of them looking worried. "You even woke them up?" Conan asked annoyed while he turned around to Alice again, he couldn't believe she would act this irresponsible.

"Don't look at me like that" she snapped "we needed to wake them up anyways. You couldn't hear it right? Of course, there are no speakers in the toilets… There was just an announcement. Everyone was ordered to leave the school as soon as possible."

He blinked "what?... why?"

"Dunno" Alice shrugged but suddenly her look grew serious, she made some steps closer to Conan and whispered so only he could hear her "and… what did you find?"

"A corpse" he replied as low as possible "but I doubt Kobayashi-sensei could have done it … to be honest it's hard to believe a human could have done it."

Even though Conan had spared he the details he could see she understood it, her faced looked scared and disgusted.

"Do you think this is the reason why we have to leave the school?" she asked in a low voice Conan nearly couldn't hear. "Yes, maybe" he answered "let's bring the kids out of here and later we've time enough to find out what is going on." Alice nodded, Conan knew she was scared but he also knew she wouldn't show it, not as long as the kids were still in danger; so she turned around and with a normal voice she ordered "ok minna, let's leave the school as we were told."

Conan threw a last glance back to the cabins. It didn't feel right to leave a crime scene as long as there were still that many questions unanswered, but he turned around though. At the moment the most important thing was to get the others out of here.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	3. Spreading

**_Chapter 3: Cannibals like spreading_**

_Hoy everyone :3 I just thought I should say thx to everyone who's readin till here x33 I was kinda worried bout writing such a FF with my self-made chara… I wanted many peops to read it and so I thought about leaving Lilly/Alice out, cause I know many people dislike self-mades and won't read FFs with them… But while writing this chap I understood that there would have been no way to leave Alice out =) I enjoy writing with her and she became a part of my DC universe. Also in my practice as a proper author I need some practice with self made characters ;D I hope you will like her at least a little and see why she's necessary for this story._

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><p>[Alice]<p>

As soon as they had picked up Conan he took the lead of their group, Conan was used to taking the lead and with this all the responsibility and Alice was grateful for that. It gave her the chance to stay back and walk at the end of their group to make sure no one gets lost, but this time she kept looking back though. She just couldn't get rid of the feeling they weren't alone, but not on the good hey-we're-not-alone-way, but on the well-I'm-after-you-and-will-kill-you-in-time-way she hated so much.

At the moment Alice looked back for the fifth time they just passed by the registry. Conan knew the fasted way out would be passing by the teacher's lounge and out of the fire door so that was where he guided them to, Alice could see that. This was the way opposite the corridor to the classrooms, but the way through the classes had been more than twice as long as their current way was.

Alice turned around for the sixth time. As before, everything was dark, silent and empty. Most likely everyone else had already left the school. The kids from the auditorium would have been guided out by the teachers, so only their little group should be left… well only if all the other kids and teachers would have went to the auditorium…

"Ne Genta-kun" Alice said and the boy right in front of her turned around to her and bended down since he was a good head bigger than she was. "When Ai, Ayumi and I were searching for Kobayashi-sensei did really all the others go to the auditorium?" The boy shook his head seemingly happy that he could help her. Alice knew he had a little crush on her and she didn't want to put upon him, but in case of need he would do what she told him, so she could make sure he wouldn't tell the others about her questions which could lead to a panic. "No, most of them were, but some of the teachers wanted to stay in their lounge and also some of the older kids wanted to stay in their class rooms" Genta explained.

She smiled "thanks" she said with a kind voice so Genta beamed and turned around again, but as soon as he didn't watched her anymore Alice's smile faded. That was what she was scared of. More people were still in the school, maybe even now and what if whatever killed the janitor would find them?

"_Or us"_ shot through her mind and gave her the chills. That was ridicules, they were alone and Conan would guide them out and later he would find out what was going on. "As easy as that" she mumbled to calm herself as a sudden gasp made her hush.

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><p><em>Lil background info for this part: In my self-made storys the main couple is LillIchi (Lilly x Shinichi) so e.g. in London (Ep 616-621) it wasn't Ran and Shinichi, it were Lilly and Shinichi. In my DC universe Ran is with Araide-sensei ;) Just important for this:<em>

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><p>[Ai]<p>

Ai had walked slightly behind Conan since they had left the ladies' room. Somehow she felt safe here; she could watch him, watch how he guided them out with nothing else on his mind than finding a murderer, no trace of doubt and also it kinda calmed her to know Alice was in her back. It was weird; Alice was one year younger than Ai was but she had lost her older sister and Alice had lost her younger sister so somehow they had went back to their old roles as sisters.

A sudden gasp made Ai wince and destroyed any feeling of safety. Ai and everyone else turned around to Chiyo who had pressed her hands against her mouth and stared with wide eyes at the door of the teacher's longue. "What's up Chiyo-chan?" Haruka asked and grabbed the hand of her friend. "T…there!" Chiyo stuttered and pointed with a trembling finger at the door. Ai glared at it and now she could see the door wasn't fully shut. "There's someone in there. I could hear footsteps"

Ai saw everyone slowly turning their heads to the door too and Conan made a step closer to it, but before he really moved Ren, a boy from their class, ran up to it. "Most likely it's a teacher!" he said with a voice that seemed insanely loud in such a situation. "Chiyo you're always such a scaredy-cat." And with these words he pushed open the door and vanished inside.

"No wait!" Conan shouted as loud as one can shout while whispering. "Just let him go." Ai said, not understanding why Conan's calmness had vanished because of this. "No" he said turning his head around to her. "Chiyo is right; I heard steps from in there too."

"So what?" she raised an eyebrow but her stomach tensed. Conan had the weird habit to make something Ai was sure of sound wrong, even to herself.

"It means" he started and Ai knew he would now use exactly this habit of his "that there is someone in there. But I doubt it is a teacher. A teacher would have switched on the light, or not? So this means there is someone in there who didn't want to be discovered and now Ren is with him."

Neither Ai nor the others who had overheard their conversation had the time even to gasp. A scream, and doubtless it was Ren who screamed, paralyzed their group. For a little eternity everything was wickedly silent. It felt like leaving a club after a loud rock song was played and now, when you're outside again, your ears just don't seem to be able to hear anything anymore. First the door slowly opening relieved the 9 children of their numbness.

Conan stepped in front of their group to protect them and Alice made a gasping sound like she wanted to stop him from that, but then the door to the teacher's longue just opened and Ryojiro Uematsu, their headmaster stood in front of them. The old man looked like usual, his long beard and eyebrows were covering the most of his face and his attitude was a little bent… and still he looked absolutely different, that, for the first time since Ai had left the organization, she felt just like running away.

His empty eyes were scanning their little group fitfully and Ai recognized a smell around him that made her stomach churn. It smelled a little metallic and distinctively… rotten, like old moldy blood. She squinted and tried to seem the headmaster properly, he was still half standing in the office which was all dark so Ai couldn't spot more of him than his face and this smell around him.

"Do not move" Ai turned her head to Conan who was still standing in front of them. Seemingly he was it who whispered it, barely loud enough for Ai and the others to hear him. Perhaps he had spotted something Ai had overlooked, but even with the meager information Ai had, she knew she wouldn't come near the headmaster at the moment; for nothing in the world. Lucky her, she didn't had to move, the headmaster seemingly decided he wanted to take a closer look at the kids and so it was him who made some steps up to them.

Ai winced. Her eyes instantly wandered down to the rest of his body which, now that he'd stepped into the corridor where the moonbeams could reach him, was now clearly to see. His suit was covered with blood and so were his hands. A deafening scream told Ai she wasn't the only one who had seen it. Chiyo had screamed and her friend Haruka grabbed her hand and shouted "run Chiyo" and with these the girls rushed down the corridor. Instantly the headmaster turned his head to where the girls had vanished, he bared his teeth and rushed past the group of children after Haruka and Chiyo.

Shocked Ai glared after him, his moves had been oddly jerky and vague like he had issues with making his body do what he wanted it to do… but still Ai hadn't believed that the old man could be that fast, she doubted she could be that fast and she was a child in good shape.

"Dammit!" Conan cursed. He looked shocked and worried and Ai hated it to see him like that. If a situation was able to take Conan aback Ai knew they were in serious trouble. "I'll get Chiyo and Haruka back." Conan finally decided with his eyes still glued to the dark corridor where the girls and their headmaster had vanished.

"You will what?" Alice had made a step out of their group. She was all pale and obviously shivering but her fists were clinched and her look serious. "You're kidding right? Have you seen what happened to him?" she asked with a loud voice that should cover her fear, it failed. "What should we do then?" Conan shouted back "we can't leave them on their own device!" For a moment no one said a word, Shinichi and Lilly usually weren't fighting, Shinichi left to manage the situation and Lilly stood back to make sure the other don't get hurt, but now they were shouting at each other and slowly Ai got the feeling something had changed.

Since they had returned from London they were kinda... huffy. Shinichi behave much more stressed and Lilly was trying even more to take care of him and he kept pushing her away and she kept annoying him and now this seemed to burst out.

"Fine" finally Alice spoke "go if you want. I'll have a look after Ren." And she turned around and vanished in the teacher's longue. Conan was still angrily glaring at her but something else had appeared in his look, too. Worry. "Ai, have an eye on her" though it was an order he made it sound more like a question, so she nodded."You too Ayumi-chan." Mitsuhiko added and with this he and Genta walked over to Conan who blinked at them in confusion. "Alice is right it could be dangerous" Genta answered Conan's unspoken question "yeah, so we'll follow you" Mitsuhiko decided and Conan looked at his two friends for a moment. "It could be really difficult minna… really."

"Yeah right, we know" Mitsuhiko said and for a moment Ai had the feeling his eyes went over to her "as always" Genta added and crossed his arms like some sort of wise hero. Conan smiled understanding and nodded "I can't stop you anyways, so it'll be best if we go together than you two following me secretly." And with this the three boys turned around and Conan called over his shoulder "Ai take Ayumi, Akito and Alice and leave the school, we'll meet up with you later and… take care" then they were gone.

Ai sighed. "Gosh this would be the part of the horror film where the audience shouts _'No! Don't spread!'_ knowing we're going to do it anyways… Never mind, let's have a look after Alice Ayumi-chan and Akito-kun." And the kids vanished in the teacher's longue.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	4. Infection

**_Chapter 4: Cannibals like infections_**

_^^ weee! I never wrote something from Genta's point of view before :3 I like the big teddy, he's highly underestimated, anyways wish me luck for this~_

_Btw you may have recognized my habit to switch between every chara and that was one reason why I made our friends spread ;P So this chapter won't just switch between the different points of views it'll also switch between the two groups :D Hah I'm so mean, but it's a great way to create suspense… I think :}_

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><p>[Genta]<p>

Genta was walking right behind his friends. Mitsuhiko was walking diagonally left in front of him and Conan right, like this Genta could keep an eye on them. He had seen Alice doing that whenever they were walking as a group and since she explained why she did it he wanted to try it out himself. He made sure he kept looking back ever and anon and the other time he watched neither Mitsuhiko nor Conan would stay back; Genta took special care Conan wouldn't stay back. A little grumpy Genta twitched his mouth. He knew Alice liked Conan, but why? He was much bigger and stronger, he could protect her… well Conan could too, but that wasn't the point.

The boy sighed, he liked Alice ever since she joined their class; ok first he wasn't really interested in her because she looked a little different from the other girls. Alice was a lot smaller and her hair was really curly so Genta didn't thought she was a beauty, but when he got to know her she was smart and really crazy and she was nice to him, different from the others she wasn't looking down on him… and not only because she was so much smaller than him.

Genta crossed his arms behind his head, maybe he had no need to worry anyways; just some minutes ago Alice and Conan had a serious fight so maybe his time had come. A smile curled the lips of the boy while he imagined how he would cheer her up after her fight with Conan.

"Genta!" the voices of Mitsuhiko and Conan from behind him whispered in sync and Genta turned around. While he was lost in thoughts he hadn't recognized his friends staying back and he had walked past them. "Oh" he mumbled and let his arms drop while walking back to them "did you find anything?"

Conan nodded and Mitsuhiko made a gesture to tell Genta to hush. As silent as possible Genta walked behind the two who were standing in front of the classroom of the 4a. Following Haruka and Chiyo they had to go into the corridor opposite the teacher's lounge where only the 4th grade had its rooms.

Genta tried to sneak a peek into the classroom but it was much too dark in there; Genta didn't get why his friends stood there both staring worriedly inside, but he knew if he'd ask he only raise annoyed glares so he kept silent. And then he could hear it, a little moaning from inside there, Genta had never heard something like that before. It sounded so painful and scared that he could barely listen to it anymore. "We need to do something" he finally said and to his surprise Conan and Mitsuhiko nodded. "You're right…" Conan replied low and put on his thinking-expression.

"You two stay here and wait for me." Genta's eyes widened. He couldn't believe it, Conan had stolen his plan! It was his idea to do something… ok he didn't knew _what_ exactly but still, this was mean. "No way! That's mean" Mitsuhiko protested and Genta agreed with him.

"Minna that's not about being mean" Conan replied calmly "I think there's someone in there, someone dangerous and I need to make sure you two don't get hurt, ok?" Genta saw Mitsuhiko nodding, like usual this argument was enough to make him agree and usually it was also enough to make Genta agree, but not this time. "No!" he said "we also have the right to get ourselves hurt just like you. Don't always play the hero just because you know Alice likes it!" The last words bubbled out of Genta's mouth before he could stop them so now he had to put on a serious look like he planned to say it.

For a moment Conan and Mitsuhiko looked at him with a surprised glared then Conan gave him a smiled that seemed to contain understanding. "Ok, I see" he said and for the first time Genta really believed Conan understood him. "But that's exactly why I need you to wait here. In case something happens to me I need you to tell Alice… I'm sorry." An expression of sadness scurried over his face but fast he put on a calm look again. "And watch out for her, just in case of course. And now hide" Conan smiled and vanished into the classroom before Genta or Mitsuhiko could say anything else, but it was ok with Genta. Without talking to each other he and Mitsuhiko hid in a niche opposite the classroom waiting for Conan to return.

"Why does he tell you to watch out for Alice and me not to watch out for Ai?" Mitsuhiko grumbled after they waited for some minutes. "Maybe because Ai doesn't need anyone to watch out for her" Genta said smirking and Mitsuhiko sighed deeply.

"Don't be disappointed" Genta started and turned around to his friend who had become oddly pale "that… that wasn't me Genta-kun." Mitsuhiko replied with wide eyes and now Genta felt his face becoming pale, too. If it wasn't Mitsuhiko who sighed and not Genta who sighed… who was it and why was it that close?

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><p>[Alice]<p>

The brown-haired had vanished into the teacher's lounge and closed the door behind her with an angry look on her face but as soon as the door fell shut her anger vanished and sadness took its place. For a moment she pressed her back against the door and tried to calm down. Why did all this horrible things always have to happen to them? Was there no one else on the world who could use some sort of adventure? Wasn't it enough that they got shrunk? But no! They had to get into danger again and slowly it seemed to destroy her and Shinichi's… well whatever they had.

After this attack of self-pity Alice pushed herself off the door and finally understood in what kind of room she was now. Somewhere here something bloody was waiting for her. She gulped and only her pride kept her away from running out again. She switched on her watch-flashlight and started to pan the room. Seemingly some sort of fight was held in here. Chairs and papers were spread all over the floor and even some desks were knocked over.

Shivering Alice let the cone of light wander through the room; scared of what it would show her and when it finally illuminated a bloody corpse it was nearly a release to her; at least now she knew what she was up to see. She walked some steps closer to the body, it was Ren and to Alice's very disgust it looked like something had tried to bite out a piece of his neck before it decided to simply eat Ren's lower half. Alice felt her stomach churn and before she could help herself she threw up into a corner. In her whole life she had seen many bloody corpses but never the corpse of a child. She wiped her arm over her mouth and blinked away the tears in her eyes. When she heard the door to the teacher's lounge opening she was still leaning against the wall to calm her shivering legs.

Before she had the chance to think about what she could do now Ai's voice called "Alice?" Hearing the voice of her friend nearly made her cry again, but she pulled herself together and called "Ai, I'm here" and as she understood what Ai would see when she would find her "d… don't come over here I'll come to you." Slowly she walked over to Ai, Ayumi and Akito who seemed to have followed her, making sure her legs wouldn't give in and when she reached her friends she had to do her best not just to hug them.

Ai, Ayumi and Akito started telling her, what Conan said and that Genta and Mitsuhiko followed him and Alice's felt a little eased. Maybe it was silly but just the fact that Conan hadn't gone on his own eased her. Suddenly Ai said "ne Ayumi, Akito would you keep cave outside? I just have to help Alice for a moment." And though Ayumi frowned she nodded and she and Akito left Ai and Alice alone.

"You found Ren, right?" Ai asked as soon as Ayumi had closed the door. "Yeah… he's dead" Alice replied and tried to suppress the memory of Ren's corpse and the imagination of his parents when they would get to know about it. "Ok… and now can you tell me what this with you and Kudo-kun is?" Alice blinked. She hadn't expected Ai to care about something like that in a situation like this. "U… uhm I dunno what you mean…"  
>"Come on, since you returned from London you two keep fighting and if you're not fighting you're talking about the weather or a book you've read… Just like you want to avoid any serious issue. I mean did you talk about <em>it<em> at all?"

Alice frowned "_it_? Uhm… I don't know what there's to talk about…"

"Oh no? I thought you'd be on cloud nine since Kudo confessed his love to you but you didn't even talk about it with him?"

Alice smiled, though it was a sad smile. Of course Ai was right; she and Conan had avoided any talk about London ever since they returned. "You see… it wouldn't make any difference if we talk about it or not as long as we are like this" Alice pointed at her 7-year old body "there's no way we could actually be… together or something. It would only arouse suspicion and we can't risk Ran or anyone else to get hurt, I know Conan would say the same." Now that she had said it out loud she felt the sadness she'd suppress the whole time coming up "I know I've changed and it's not like I didn't knew how dangerous his life is before London, but since then… it's just so much more obvious. I don't know how I should deal with his… I mean how I should behave in case he…" She had to stop or she knew she would start to cry when she thinks about Conan's death.

Alice looked at her friend and waited for a sign of compassion or at least understanding but Ai just smiled her you're-a-real-idiot-smile. "Baka! How do you know he thinks like that if you don't ask him? And don't tell me you wish he was no detective, the fact that he's always running into danger is what you like about him" Alice blinked. "Don't just blink" Ai said and pretended to be strict with Alice. "Just promise me you'll have a serious talk with him as soon as we're out of this."

A little confused Alice nodded, but before she could say anything to say thank you, their current situation, they had tried to ignore so hard, make itself felt again. From the outside they could hear Akito and Ayumi scream in fear.

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><p>[Conan]<p>

Conan switched on his watch-flashlight and started to illuminate the classroom of the 4a. He didn't had to enter the room very deep; only some inches away from the door he found Chiyo, or at least what was left of her. Conan put his light away from her corpse. Even though he felt sorry for the little girl he had to make sure whatever killed her wasn't around anymore. Fortunately the room seemed to be abandoned. Conan hesitated. It was weird, Chiyo had literally been torn apart, she must have died instantly… but who had moaned in this room then?

Again Conan panned the room with his light; nothing. When Conan was about to turn around he could hear it again. A moaning, though it sounded different from before. It was louder and not that painfully…Once Conan and Alice had visited the zoo when they'd been about 12 and he heard lions make such a moan just before they savage their victim.

Fast Conan turned around to the point he guess the moaning-thing to be and, hiding behind a desk, his light cone illuminated "Haruka-chan?" he wondered out loud. The black-haired girl from his class was cowering near Chiyo and was pressing one hand against her arm which seemed to be seriously hurt, judging from all the blood that ran through her fingers. Conan felt eased; most likely the girl had found her friend and was now horribly shocked. He reached out her hand to Haruka "Don't worry Haruka-chan, I'll get you out of here." He tried to make his voice sound friendly but he couldn't avoid it growing insisting.

Something was wrong here, horribly wrong. All the signs were that both Kobayashi-sensei and their headmaster had committed dreadful murders and judging from what Alice told him and what he saw himself both teachers didn't seemed to be really well. They were pale and seemingly unfit to plead _"and all this started after Akito had thrown this powder at Kobyashi-sensei…"_ Conan pondered when he suddenly recognized Haruka hadn't grabbed his hand yet.

The girl just watched him and squint her eyes to see through the dazzling light. "Gomen" Conan said though he wondered why she hadn't just said that he's dazzling her. To be exact she had been all silent since he'd spotted her. Fast he turned away the light to stop dazzling her, what was a mistake how he recognized too late.

As soon as he'd made this sudden move, Haruka's eyes widened and out of the blue she got up and jumped at him. Conan gasped as the girl threw him to the floor with such a power that Conan's watch-flashlight hit the floor and cracked. Suddenly the whole world around him seemed to be dark and for a moment Conan thought he'd passed out since his head had hit the floor hard, but then he recognized only his flashlight got broken. Without being able to see anything he tried to focus on his left senses. The one that was claimed most was his nose. The whole room smelled like old blood and mustiness. Secondly he could feel Haruka. She sat on his body and was pressing down his shoulders with her hands. For a 7-year old girl she was unbelievable strong. Third and that was even more worrying, he could hear her. He could hear Haruka's heavy breath and it was approaching.

Conan piped down as his eyes slowly got used to the darkness around. He could spot Haruka's face though he wished he couldn't. Her face was pale and her eyes gaping at him with an expression of lunacy. Whatever was sitting on him had nothing to do with the Haruka he knew. She'd always been a very quiet and shy girl, only with her friend Chiyo she'd been running around and playing but now Chiyo was dead and seemingly Haruka tried to do the same to Conan_."And she's succeeding"_ Conan thought getting more and more exhausted from trying to push her hands of his shoulders, without any effect though.

Conan made a decision. This could be the nastiest thing he'd done in his life but since Haruka was barely some inches away from him he didn't see another way to get out of this. He waited for his chance and then he pushed his feet against Haruka's stomach and using all his strength he was able to push the girl away from him and she stumbled over a chair that lay on the floor and hit the floor behind.

Without hesitation he got up, ready for Haruka to strike again, but nothing happened. Conan frowned and slowly a feeling of sorrow crawled up his throat. He'd just kicked a girl, a little 7-year old girl and now she wasn't moving anymore. Worried he made some steps closer to the chair Haruka had vanished behind so he could see her lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious. The feeling of sorrow vanished as he saw Haruka's hands holding a piece of blue cloth, a part of his suit as he understood while looking down on his arm. She'd simply ripped it out.

Confused Conan rubbed the part of his head that had hit the floor. No matter why, he hadn't kicked a little girl, he had protected his life against some_thing_ that wanted to kill him with an unbelievable strength. _"Whatever happened to Haruka it happened to Kobayashi-sensei and the headmaster, too…" _Conan pondered though he couldn't understand _what_ exactly had happened.

A scream interrupted Conan's thoughts. Fast he turned around and head for the door. This scream sounded like Genta and Mitsuhiko's voices and most likely it didn't promise any good. When Conan slammed the door to the corridor open he knew he was right. The headmaster had returned and now he was cornering Genta and Mitsuhiko, also Conan noticed a wound on the headmaster's leg. It didn't seem to be too serious but still it looked like a part of his leg was… missing. For a moment Conan was paralyzed. This was just ridicules. Little girls who smash him down to the floor, headmasters who corner students, bloody corpses seemingly left by his classmates and teachers. Another scream finally brought him back to reality, first he had to safe Mitsuhiko and Genta, afterwards he'd find out what was wrong here.

Once again Conan hesitated. When Haruka, a little girl, had grown that strong how much stronger would the headmaster have become then? Conan clenched his teeth, the headmaster had bended over Mitsuhiko and Genta and so Conan pushed the buttons on his belt and a football started to appear. While it fell down to the floor he switched on his Powerkickboots to the highest level and kicked the ball. The ball flew through the corridor and hit the head of the headmaster whose moves froze and he slowly collapsed. While Conan ran up to his friends and the unconscious teacher he knew he'd done right. This level of his boots had at least seriously hurt any normal person, but the headmaster had barely been knocked out.

"What's wrong with him?" Mitsuhiko asked Conan in a shrill voice. "I don't exactly know… come on and help me… both of you" Conan said while he started to lug the headmaster over to the classroom Haruka and Chiyo were still in. Genta and Mitsuhiko joined him and he started to explain.

"Somehow he, Kobayashi-sensei and the others changed… Something made them this pale and… they don't seem to be themselves. Also they're a lot stronger now and…" Conan hesitated. He didn't knew how much he should tell his friends, they were children at least, but they had followed him into this though and it was the safest if they knew what they were up against. "… and they seem to kill people. I don't know why or how but they do."

Genta and Mitsuhiko gulped but nodded, they understood that this situation was serious. "Do you think it is because… of the powder?" Mitsuhiko finally asked as they closed the door after putting the headmaster in and locking it and Conan blinked at him. He hadn't thought Mitsuhiko would say something he had just came up with himself so a little confused he said "y…yes I think somehow this was the trigger, though I don't know why and there's something else that's weird. Both Haruka and the headmaster seemed to be injured. Not too serious but I think this is how it… spreads."

"You mean it is contagious?" Genta asked with huge eyes and Conan just nodded while he touched his arm a little worried. He glared at the part Haruka had just injured but as far as Conan could see his arm in the darkness it wasn't bleeding, only a part of his jacket was stripped, even his shirt beyond was ok so he didn't think he should be infected.

"But if that's true… the girls and Akito are in danger!" Genta suddenly said and Conan agreed "yeah that's why we need to find them and all get out of here as soon as possible."

And with this the boys made their way back through the corridor to the teacher's longue, not knowing that within the classroom they had just locked a little girl and an old man woke up again.

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><p><em>^^ wow, super long chapter this time :3 Hope chu don't mind<em>

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><p>[Ai]<p>

After Ai's talk with her friend was interrupted by the scream both rushed over to the door but before Ai could push down the handle Alice grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.

"Alice?" she wondered but she just shook her head "I want to help them too, but weird things are happening here and we need to be careful." Ai raised an eyebrow but Alice just laid her finger on her lips to show her to be silent and carefully opened the door for a crack to peek through.

"What's out there?" Ai whispered when she saw Alice knitting her eyebrows. "Looks like Kobyashi-sensei is out there… she, oh shit" suddenly Alice's eyes widened and Ai hardly suppressed the urge to grab her hand, usually Lilly wasn't cursing and slowly Ai got annoyed and scared by all her friends starting to break their habits. "I don't know why but she grabbed Ayumi… she really don't seems to be herself at the moment, we need to help her!" Alice said and was about to push the door open. "And what about being careful?" Ai asked laying one hand on the door to stop Alice who bit her lip with a worried expression. "I know but… I'm not good in coming up with plans in emergency situation, that's Shinichi's thing, not mine!" Slowly Alice's voice grew panic and Ai nodded. "Well ok, Kudo-kun isn't here, but what about this plan?"

Ai bended forward and fast she whispered her plan in Alice's ear. "No! That's far too dangerous, let me…" Alice answered.

"No way" Ai interrupted her "my plan, my risk." And because Alice still looked unwilling she added "we don't have any more time to waist, right?" and with this she pushed open the door and gulped.

Her plan was easy. She would distract Kobayashi-sensei and Alice would seek shelter for Ayumi and Akito. The only problem was that Ai hadn't a single clue how she could escape her teacher, but as Alice had said, good plans were Shinichi's thing, not theirs.

Finally Ai stepped in front of Kobyashi who had lifted up Ayumi and Akito was standing nearby; too scared to run or do anything. "Hey!" Ai said with trembling voice, she forbad herself this fear and with a much more confident voice she shouted "Hey I said!" Slow, very slow Kobayashi-sensei turned around to her. Ai felt her heart beating hard against her chest and somehow she couldn't avoid the thought her teacher could hear it pounding. After a little eternity their eyes met and Ai was starring right into the empty eyes of her Kobyashi which once had been this bright and kind; now they were only reflecting their surroundings till they had focused on Ai.

Ai tried to calm herself without moving too much. It was important to make sure her next step would come in time. When the headmaster had rushed after her classmates they had made a sudden move and just like a carnivore the headmaster had run after them like they're his prey. For this he had even spared Conan who was standing closer to him and this was what Ai wanted to achieve now herself. She needed her teacher to forget about the child she was holding in hands and running after Ai instead.

From the corner of her eye she could see Ayumi and Akito watching her, Ayumi with wet eyes and it choked her. _"Do it!"_ she pressed herself but she couldn't move and slowly Kobayashi-sensei was losing interest and turned to Ayumi again. "I'm right behind you." Ai's eyes widened. A voice from behind her had just whispered those words with a low and loving voice. "I won't let her hurt you, promise." Ai put on a resolved look, she couldn't tell why but she trusted Alice and so with a sudden move she sprint right, up to the corner where behind the fire-door and their exit would be though she didn't hoped too much. She wouldn't reach it.

Ai didn't had the time to get exhausted or to look back, she could hear some_thing_ following her with an unbelievable speed as she rushed around the corner. Ai quickened her pace as much as she could, but her ears told her it was hopeless, her teacher was just some inches away from her and those last inches were shrinking quickly. _"I bet Agasa-hakase will worry if I don't come home tomorrow" _shot through her head. Sometimes it was weird what kind of thoughts rush through people's minds when they're in danger.

A metallic clonk and a moan seemingly interrupted the steps from behind Ai. For some moments she kept running down the corridor but since the steps were gone she dared to glare back. Kobayashi-sensei stood in the middle of the corridor and finally Ai stopped too; on the floor near her feet Ai could spot a globe from a classroom and behind Kobayashi Alice was standing in the corridor, holding another globe. "What about Ayumi and…" Ai started to shout as her teacher turned her head around to her again. "I showed them a place to hide and now please be quite. **Hey! Come and get me if you dare!"** Alice shouted the last sentences up to Kobayashi-sensei who made an angry growl, she was not moving though. Ai saw Alice's look getting angry and worried "I told you to come, whatever you've become, don't dare getting any closer to Ai-neechan!" Seemingly she plugged up all her power and threw the second globe which hit Kobayashi's head and made her finally speed up to Alice who cursed and rushed down the corridor again.

Without thinking Ai traced after them. She didn't knew what to do, should she grab the globes and throw them at her teacher herself so this lunatic play tag would started again? But Ai didn't even got the chance to grab the globes, Alice struggled and hit the ground near the corner back to the teacher's longue, within seconds their teacher had reached the brown-haired and bended over her.

"Noooo!" Ai shouted and quickened her pack though she knew it was too late, she could hear Kobayashi or whatever she had become growl and lowering her mouth down to Alice who screamed in fear and pain. _"What is she doing?"_ Ai wondered when a shout made her wince "Go away from her!"

"_Shinichi!"_ she thought and she felt like crying in relief. He had come and he would rescue Lilly, he _had_ to. A football flew up to Kobayashi-sensei from behind the corner and hit her head hard so she flew away from Alice and collapsed on the wall. Now Ai ran up to her friend, hardly breathing. Alice was lying on the floor, she didn't move except her whole body shivering and when Ai reached her she made a whimper as she finally opened her eyes. "Lilly" Ai cried out and hugged the girl close to her which she shivering returned "are you alright?" she asked after a while of hugging.

Alice nodded, she looked pale and scared but she seemed to be ok. "Lil!" Finally Conan had reached the girls, too. "Shinichi, where are Genta and Mitsuhiko?" Alice asked. Well again, sometimes it's weird what kind of thoughts rush through people's minds when they're in danger or just out of it.

"T… they're with Ayumi and Akito in the hide-out. But are you ok?" Ai saw him kneeling down to Alice and surprisingly he seemed to be shivering too while he touched her shoulder. Again Alice just nodded, but different to Ai, Conan didn't seem to be eased. "Really?" he asked insisting.

"Yes" Alice replied a little worry in her voice "just a little wound on my arm. It's disgusting but I think she… bit me." These words made the last trace of color vanish from Conan's face. "Let me have a look" he said, more whispered it and reached for Alice's arm which seemed to be a little hurt. "It's nothing serious, barely more than a scratch." Alice tried to calm Conan but he just started at the wound which was slightly bleeding.

In this moment Ai couldn't tell what was happening in Conan's mind. The only thing she was sure of was that his thoughts were rushing in his head. Finally he swallowed and nodded. "Ok, let's find the others and just get out of here."

"S…Shinichi?" Alice asked with her brown eyes glued to Conan, still sitting on the floor while he just got up and walked back down to the teacher's longue. "Come, hurry up" he said not even looking back at her and Ai saw Alice shoulders lowering disappointedly. Finally she got up; covering her wound with her hand and so both followed Conan.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	5. Problems

**_Chapter 5: Cannibals like problems_**

_B) Phew what a long chap the last one was. I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly did. Anyways this will be shorter but not more boring ;P I still need to get our friends deeper into trouble and for that I require the help of the cannibals :} U didn't seriously think I'd let them get out of this like that right? :D No! The fire-door may be close, but mean-me will block this way ^-^ Enjoy!_

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><p>[Alice]<p>

Alice felt choked. Still she could feel the part of her body that had hit the floor, her pounding heart when Kobayashi attacked her and the pain that rushed through her arm while she bit her. SHE BIT HER! Alice shivered, it was disgusting but Conan had rescued her and she wanted nothing more to hug him or at least that he'd smile at her to tell her that now everything would be ok. But nothing like this happened and she felt silly. Silly because she still thought of Conan as her hero who would always rescue her and make everything ok, so she seemingly lost the ability to solve problems herself.

While the three of them where still walking down the corridor to the hide-out of the kids Alice reached into her pocket and got out a huge patch. Since she and Conan were rushing into dangerous situations that often she got used to carrying some of them around. Luckily the wound wasn't very deep and the pitch could cover it. "Minna, come out." Conan's whispered insisting as they had reached the window opposite the teacher's longue.

"Where is the hide-out?" Ai wondered while looking around, seemingly there was nothing more than a window. "Beyond it." Alice replied and pointed at the planks beyond the window. When she and Shinichi were kids they had to break into school ever and anon and one day they had found out that those planks were loose and if one doffs them they give way to a little niche and in this niche Genta, Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Akito were now sitting and waiting like sardines in a tin.

"Kowaii yo!" Ayumi got up and glombsed Conan what raised some angry glares by the three boys from the niche; even Akito. Alice suppressed a jealous look because Conan had turned around to her. She just turned away and said over her shoulder "now let's get out of here" without looking back. She couldn't help it but she was mad with Conan, his way of not telling her what made him worry had hurt her and now she was the one to simply turn around and so their little group walked down to the corner to the fire door once again; this time Alice leading it, Ai and Mitsuhiko right behind her and Conan with Ayumi, circled by Genta and Akito behind them, in the middle.

Alice was walking fast, not running but she still just wanted to go out of here, she needed a proper bandage for her arm which just didn't want to stop bleeding and now that her anger had vanished she regretted leading the group, she was not good on leading anything as she proofed by her imprudent attack with the globe on Kobayashi-sensei.

Smiling about her own silly plan Alice reached the corner first and from habit she peeked around it. Since she once run into a guy on a bike while walking around a corner she got used to look around them first. She had already half walked around it, as, what her eyes saw, had made its way up to her brain and leaded to a reaction. She winced and clapped her hand over her mouth. Fast she turned around and pushed her friends who were following her back behind the corner. While she felt her heart beating hard against her chest she could nearly feel their safe escape fading away.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Conan walked quiet in the middle of their group; circled by Ayumi at his side and the annoyed glances of the other boys. And even though they were walking in front of him he could also feel the angry glares of Ai and Alice. He made a voiceless sigh. Except Ayumi who was seemingly trying to rip off his arm everyone seemed to be mad with him. The boys obviously because Ayumi, Ai because he had let Alice sit alone on the floor and Alice… well there were millionth of reasons why she was mad at him during the last days and not even half of them seemed to be logical to him. The only thing he really got was he'd hoped after saying _'it'_ everything would be much easier, but somehow it had made everything even more complicated.

While pondering Conan didn't recognize Ai, Mitsuhiko and Alice suddenly stopping and so he simply walked into them what made Genta and Akito run into him. Now he was really angry "what's up?" he snapped a little louder than he wanted it to be. "They are there." Alice hissed in her scared voice. Conan saw her leaning against the wall near the corner; on her face an expression of fear and incredulity had appeared. "Who?" he asked finally freeing his arm from Ayumi's grip. "Those… I dunno, pale people, like Kobayashi… a whole lot of them, 10 or more and they… are there." Alice threw a meaningful glare at Conan that should tell him that she couldn't tell the others what was happening behind the corner, so he inferred that there had to be more corpses.

He clenched his teeth; this was not good, not at all. "But maybe we can do it" Ai suddenly said and her look conveyed all the fear that she suppressed while talking "I mean we've you're boots to shoot footballs at them ne Edogawa-kun?" Conan shook his head bitterly. "No, I already used two; one for the headmaster and one for Kobayashi. There's only one left…"

"Then we have to think of another way to get through them! I mean there are maybe 10, but we could do it" Ai insisted and Conan saw Alice, Akito and Ayumi slowly nodding. He, Mitsuhiko and Genta kept silent, they knew something he had concealed from the other. If these were just 10 lunatic people he'd agreed, they could have pit against them but he knew one single wound could have serious consequences, but how should he tell them? How could he just say it as long as Alice may be infected?

In his life Conan had often found himself in situations where he thought about how to say something and then just someone else said it for him, simple and clean and afterwards he was glad this person had done it… this was not such a situation. "No we can't! This curse seems to be contagious." Everyone glared at Mitsuhiko who had said it. No one dared to move, they all just glared at him with wide eyes. Only Conan looked at Alice who had put on a weird kind of smile, a cross between incredulity and amusement. "Y… you're kidding, right?" she asked with a voice that sounded a little too high to be calm.

"No" Mitsuhiko replied half proud about all the attention he got "Conan explained it to us himself." Instantly all the glares jumped to Conan and only Genta facepalmed. "U…uhm" Conan started but his whole attention was with Alice. The smile on her face had vanished; she looked at Conan with those brown eyes of her that plainly seemed to ask _"why?"_

"Mitsuhiko it was a secret!" Genta told his friends with an annoyed glance, not getting that what he said didn't made it any better. "But why?" Mitsuhiko tried to protect himself and Genta blinked, seemingly he couldn't tell why, though he knew it was one and Conan was just standing there and glaring. A pale face had appeared behind the corner, the face of a teacher Conan had seen only a few times before, but he understood that whatever had made Kobayashi and the others become like this had also infected this teacher since his mouth was covered with red blood dripping down on Alice shoulder who hadn't recognized him yet. His face had appeared only some inches above Alice face and he seemingly had listened to their conversation since no one had spotted him yet. Now that he saw Conan recognizing him he straightened up and walked around the corner, with a facial expression like he wanted to say _"Excuse me."_

Before Conan was able to tell the others, Alice had recognized Conan's look, the blood on her shoulder and turned around to the teacher. For a moment both seemed to have eye contact. He teacher looked down on Alice and she looked up to him, finally she backed off gasped "oh god please don't!" and this was what made their whole group run; too late they remembered that sudden moves were exactly what those _things_ saw as an invitation to hunt after them.

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><p><em>Oki, I decided to let Kita and Naomi appear in this FF at least once :D For those who don't know them u just gotta know they're friends of Ran, Shinichi and Lilly, detectives and Kita is owned by kitameguire and Naomi by Naamix3. <em>

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><p>[Naomi]<p>

Naomi sprawled on her bed and rolled to her right side to look at her friend Kita who was lying on her fluffy carpet. It was about 11 p.m. and the girls had met for a sleep over. After they had spent their evening with watching a movie and talking a lot, they had finally switched on the TV.

Sometimes it was hard for them to suppress their detectivy-selves and so they needed to check on the news ever and anon. At the moment they were talking about this book of occult on the news again and that specialists have found out that it was really old and contained many receipts that, how fanatics think, could be used to make magical ingredients.

"Nonsense" Kita sighed and reached for the chips. "Isn't it enough that Kaito is talking about magic all the time? Now even the news are full of this." Naomi agreed with her friend, if stuff like magic would be real detectives would be useless. "Ok, let me switch this out" she decided and got up to search for the remote that had the annoying habit to vanish whenever Naomi needed it.

"But of course this is nonsense." A man from inside the TV said and Kita and Naomi suddenly glared at him "so you don't believe it could be dangerous that this book of occult is out there?" The woman from the interview asked the man who just shook his head. "No madam, I never said this book wouldn't be dangerous, it is indeed. I just said that it's not magic that makes it dangerous."

The woman from the TV and the two girls from outside glared at the man who spoke on. "You see, when this book was used centuries ago, many healer there tried to get the admiration of their clan by pretending they could do magic. For this they often just used natural ingredients which effects were only known by those healers. This book which got stolen is that valuable because some of the receipts are highly dangerous. We decided to lock it away so no one could ever spread those receipts."

Naomi and Kita glared at the man, what he said sounded much more logical than all this nonsense of magic and now the two detectives started to worry.

"You mean" the news lady started again, obviously trying to hide how worried she was herself "if those receipts spread, the humankind is maybe exposed to some new, deathly diseases?"

The man chortled "oh my, young lady I know the news always want to have a new tragedy but please don't make it sound that dramatic." Slowly the man leaned forward and the camera zoomed close to him "I don't want to lie to you. Those receipts can lead to serious illnesses if one would really use them, but we have to keep in mind that those receipts were invited by healers from centuries ago, not by bioterrorists. So we can be sure there should be a way to cure those diseases, a pretty easy way… indeed… though we don't know them yet."

The man chortled again and Naomi and Kita looked at each other. "Oh my, he seems to have a lot of fun." Naomi said half smiling, half scared. "Yeah…" Kita agreed but she frowned.

"What's up?" Naomi asked her friend and finally she switch off the TV. "It's just… Conan and Alice have this habit to get themselves into exactly this kind of dangerous situations." The both girls snickered. It was ridicules that the two kids would have managed it to meet the thief of this book who had also just used one of those receipts. "Something like that could only happen to one, who has super bad luck with dangerous situations." Kita laughed and suddenly both hushed.

"W… where are those 2 at the moment?" Naomi asked a little worried.

"Not at home… they spent the night in the school" Kita replied tonelessly.

"Maybe I should send them a SMS…" Naomi decided and reached for her mobile phone.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	6. Making up

**_Chapter 6: Cannibals like making up_**

_Just a little chapter with some romantic parts :) I needed this as a little break from all the running and fighting from the last chaps… And well I had to see the doc today :) yesh also cannibals need some strokes after such a days :3 So here: Romantic. Don't worry xD the next chapter will contain our beloved violence and excitement again._

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><p>[Ai]<p>

Gasping their group had reached the classrooms of the 3rd grade and rush into the room of the 3a. Fast they started to put all desks and chairs they could find in front of the door to block it. "Do you think he's out there?" Ayumi asked, breathing hard as soon as they were done blocking the door. "It's weird but I doubt he even ran after us for very long" Ai answered and tried to calm down, they hadn't ran that far so it was more her fear that took her breath away and while she looked around it seemed to be the same with the others, who came slowly back to normal. Except one.

"Daijoobu Alice-chan?" Genta asked and bended down to the brown-haired who pressed her hand against the side of her body. Unlike the others who had caught their breaths she was still gasping and clenching her teeth. Ai knew Alice wasn't fit, but it was odd that such a short sprint could exhaust her like that.

"I wouldn't come near to her." Akito was standing with his back to the blocked door and looked down to Alice with a cross of disgust and fear. The others glared at him and Ai recognized that their whole group was standing near the door, only Genta and Alice were standing in the middle of the room and so she couldn't get rid of the feeling she had unintended joined a court that was now judging her friend. "What are you trying to say?" she snapped at Akito as soon as she understood what he was up to do. "Don't be silly" he replied sharply from his place in the middle of their 'court' right opposite Alice. "We just heard it's contagious, how long do you think will it take until she understands how tasty we all look?" For a moment everyone was silent, only Alice hard breathing was audible, the jury seemed to make its decision. Someone suddenly grabbed Akito by his shirt and to Ai's surprise it wasn't Genta or Mitsuhiko who had lost his temper.

It was Conan who brought his face close to Akito's and snapped "What?" he asked with a furious voice, Ai had barely ever heard from him, and increased his grip on Akito's shirt. "Edogawa-kun." Ai tried to interrupt him, she felt like hitting Akito herself but he was just a child at least, but Conan ignored her anyways.

"I said" Akito began to protect himself though Ai saw he was scared; Conan could be very terrifying if he wanted to. "That your little friend is about to kill all of us and I prefer to stay alive."

"It's your fault we're in this! So when I was you I wouldn't shoot my mouth off like that!" he shouted and for a moment no one dared to speak. No matter how angry everyone was with Akito, no one would speak now that Conan was throwing this look at him like he was about to hit him and Akito was at the same time trying to bear up with Conan's glare and turn his head away to avoid it.

While usually a long time of silence calmed down most people Ai had seen who were about to hurt someone it only seemed to get Conan even angrier that Akito wasn't answering and when Ai thought he would now really hit him the only person in the room who wasn't angry with Akito spoke.

"Let go of him Conan." Everyone's looks where now with Alice who had finally calmed her breath, except Conan's who was still glaring at Akito and so Alice walked up to both of them and laid her hand on Conan's "he may be an idiot but he's right" she said. Now even Conan looked at Alice and her brown eyes met his blue ones and gruffly he let go of Akito to turn around to Alice. "We don't know yet" he insisted "all those they… it happened so sudden to them, you're still ok right? Your wound is much smaller than theirs." Though Conan's voice was still pushing but it had came back to his usual kind manner and Ai saw Alice's eyes filling with tears answered by a surprised and confused look from Conan.

"Ne minna, let's have a little rest till we know how to get out of here" Ai ordered and walked over into a corner near the board and as she planned everyone followed her so Conan and Alice had some time to talk in private.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Again she had to cry. He just didn't get why she ALWAYS had to cry no matter what he said and he was glad when all the others were retreating so he could finally talk to her. "Lil" he started but she just shook her head, still crying. "Why?" she finally asked with a shivering voice. "Why couldn't you say that while I was sitting on the floor? Why not while I was scared and needed it?" her voice grew louder but her look stood sad, no sign of anger appeared within it; all in all her appearance was much more… hopeless.

"I…" he started, not knowing how to continue. She shook her head once again "never mind" she turned away but he grabbed her hand. "Gosh, why can't we talk? Earlier we could and suddenly it's impossible…" he said it like it was a reproach but he knew as much as she was always running away he just couldn't say what he wanted to. "Talk…?" she asked toneless "you wanna talk? Then go on and talk, because we don't know how long I will be able to listen to you." Without him recognizing his grab on her arm released and she sank down on the floor with her back pressed against the wall and her hands in front of her face.

With a long sigh he sat down beneath her and rubbed his head in confusion. "We don't know yet."

"Don't be naive, it doesn't fit you." Conan smiled; he'd missed her way she teased him "right… but we really don't know."

"Oh perfect" she looked up at him with wet eyes "so the answer to _'will Lilly kill all her friends?' _is _'we don't know'_" she smiled but her eyes filled with tears again. Carefully he laid his hand on her shoulder and she closed her eyes and buried her face behind her tucked up legs.

"You shouldn't have scared Akito like that" Alice mumbled after a while, still hiding her face. "He's a moron" Conan replied, knowing it was no excuse for his eruption. "He's a silly child and he's scared… maybe we will understand his fear was justified."

"How do you feel?" he asked and left her last argument unanswered; she shrugged. "My arm hurts and I'm scared, except of this I'm perfectly fine." He smiled, he knew it was sarcasm but it eased him though "see, you're ok. Maybe nothing will happen." She looked up to him with wide eyes like she wanted to believe what he said, then she lowered her glare and let her head drop on his shoulder. For a moment he was surprised, since weeks they had avoided any kind of touches and he recognized how he missed it. A little unskilled he started to pat her head and she hugged herself closer to him.

"I don't want to die yet" she whispered like a child that was fed up with playing a game and wanted to quit it what made her sound even more helpless and sad, but when she raised her head Conan recognized that she was smiling. "Not yet… not here… not now that I know … you…" she started the sentences a few times, but broke off again; Conan understood though. "Aishiteru" she mumbled and laid her head back on his shoulder. With a warmth spreading in his stomach he laid his arm fully around her shoulders and kissed her hair. "Somehow we'll get out of here" he mumbled without really knowing what he promised and she just nodded without really caring and while she looked up to him he brought his face closer to hers.

They were maybe one inch separated from each other; that close that he could almost taste her breath as he suddenly encountered a little resistance. He felt her hand lightly pressing against his chest. "Don't" she whispered with glowing cheeks "In case I'm really infected I could pass it to you" slowly she opened her eyes and smiled at him and he nodded and leaned back against the wall "now we r_eally _need to get out of here" he sighed and she snickered.

"You don't know how nice it is to see you made up with each other, but I'm afraid I have to remind you we're still in a school with people around us, who try to kill us." Conan and Alice both winced and glared at Ai who had appeared in front of them and while they got up from the floor and followed Ai over to the others Conan could tell from Alice's smile that she was, just like him, wondering for how long Ai had been standing there.

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><p>[Ayumi]<p>

While Ai decided to walk over to Conan and Alice who had become worryingly silent Ayumi stood with the others in their corner near the windows. The last minutes they had spent trying to open the windows but Ai kept telling them it was useless and she was right after all. The teachers had locked all windows to avoid someone coming in while everyone was sleeping, not knowing that they would block the exits for them to escape. Again Ayumi glared over to Conan and Alice, they were sitting in the shadows and so she couldn't spot much of them but only the fact that they were sitting so close together was enough for Ayumi's stomach to contract. She leaned against the wall and looked up to the ceiling.

She couldn't get what Conan saw in Alice. She could be so mean to him, also she was slightly crazy and Ayumi was just so much cuter than she would ever be… And never the less… whenever she and Conan teased each other he ended up with a smile Ayumi had never seen on his face before and just some minutes ago he'd nearly beaten up someone, just because he was rude to Alice.

Suddenly Ayumi felt even worse. Poor Alice was maybe infected and must be really scared at the moment and everything Ayumi could think of was how much better she was than Alice. As soon as Ai returned with Conan and Alice in tow she jumped up and glombsed Alice. "Sorry" she said still hugging her friend though she knew Alice maybe wouldn't understand what she was saying sorry for. Surprisingly Ayumi felt Alice patting her head and whispered "it's ok. If it would be the other way round I'd think even worse things about you." Astonished she looked at Alice who just winked and let go of her.

"So the only exit left for us seems to be the main entrance right?" Conan asked since Ai and the others had told him about their investigations while Ayumi hugged Alice. "Yeah, the windows are locked and the fire-door is guarded by Alice buddies." Akito snarled and threw a provoking look at Conan but Alice made some steps closer to him, before anyone could react. When she was standing close to Akito she said with a saccharine voice "Yes you're right, and if you won't stop this Alice-is-a-cannibal-stuff I'm going to invite my buddies for a nice little dinner with Akito as main dish, yup" she closed her sentence with a sweet smile and her typical 'yup' when she finished a rubdown. The others laughed and though Akito gave her an angry glare he kept silent. "Cannibal?" Ayumi asked after a while of laughing and Genta nodded "right, is it that how we want to call them?"

"Well they seem to eat their victims so that would fit" Ai agreed but Mitsuhiko declared "but they also seem to be kinda dump… so aren't they zombies?"

"No, zombies are dead, they seem to be alive, they are cannibals" Alice said and because Mitsuhiko raised his eyebrow she added "hey, I'll maybe become one of them, I have to know it." Again they laughed and even Akito smiled what made Ayumi wonder why suddenly Alice was behaving that much happier and if it had something to do with her chat with Conan in the shadows, but she decided everyone was much happier at the moment. Maybe they all just needed something to laugh about after those last horrible hours.

The only one who stood out of their conversation was Conan; he bit the inside of his cheek while staring at his mobile phone. "You still have your phone?" Ayumi asked and slowly everyone stopped laughing and looked over to Conan who nodded. Actually they all had to hand their phones over for their sleepover. "You kept your phone and didn't call for help?" Ai asked and raised one eyebrow. A little embarrassed Conan rubbed his head "well… I forgot about it" and since Ai was still looking at him with her sneering glare he added "I was tired ok, stop looking at me like that."

Smiling Alice walked up to him "so you're calling someone now?" she asked but he shook his head.

"I just got a SMS from Naomi… seemingly she found out something about the book of occult" he said and showed the others the message from Naomi and Kita where they told them about what the expert said and that they should keep themselves out of trouble. "So it's not a curse" Alice mumbled after reading and Ayumi saw Conan and Ai exchanging amused glances and Conan said with a sarcastic voice "my what a surprise" what brought him a jab in the ribs from Alice "so there could be a remedy for all this?" Ayumi asked hopefully and thought about rescuing Kobayashi-sensei and the others. "Yes… most likely, though we have to find out what this remedy could be…" Conan replied and threw an encouraging smile at Alice which she gladly replied.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	7. Hide and Seek

**_Chapter 7: Cannibals like hide and seek_**

_Slowly we're heading for the main part of the story :) Again thx for all your reviews, they mean an awful lot of me, but I hope u do understand that there are some points where I can't follow your wishes ;3 pls forgive me_

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><p>[Alice]<p>

"So does everyone agree with it?" Conan asked and looked around in their group though Alice saw he knew no one really agreed with it; however his question was answered by slow nodding.

They all had sat down on some tables near the windows they hadn't used to block the door and while they discussed their opportunities everyone threw a glance through the windows to the schoolyard from time to time. It was abandoned because most likely the teachers had guided the students out through the main entrance where they would now stand together as a group and slowly the teachers would recognize that some were missing, as far as their little group could tell the headmaster, Kobayashi-sensei, the janitor, the whole 4a and well of course their group would be missing; the dead people included. Also Conan and the others came to the conclusion that the people outside probably already called the police and hoped they would arrive soon.

"But we need to tell them what we know!" Mitsuhiko had added when Conan said it and of course he was right so there was no way they could just wait inside this room until someone came to rescue them. Also they decided it would be far too dangerous to call anyone to pick them up by breaking the window. They doubted those Cannibals were intelligent enough to open doors or windows but if they would hear glass breaking within this room, they would attack it and then the open window would be their gate to infect the city.

Again Alice threw a glance at their blockade in front of the door; it hadn't collapsed but likely just because nothing from the outside had tried to come in yet. She looked back at her group, the last minutes they had spent going through all this and they came to the conclusion there was only one way, they needed to leave the room and escape through the main entrance. This door and the fire door, which was blocked now, were the only ones they could unlock and lock themselves since they had special locks.

Alice ran her hand through her hair, past her bow and down her neck. She was freezing and sweating at the same time and her heart was beating fast. She gulped, this was how she always felt when she was scared, he body started to feel too small and she longed for her old body, though this time she felt even worse than usually when she was scared. She gulped again and tried to get rid of this chocking feeling then she spoke, more to find out if her voice would work "ok the let's go, we should take the chance as long as it's quiet outside."

Slowly everyone got up from the tables and they started to unblock the door, as silent as possible. "You're ok?" Conan asked while they carried away a desk and she saw his eyes slowly panning her face like they searched for a hint of… well of what? "Yeah, I'm fine." She replied though it was a lie. Obviously she wasn't fine, not even close, but Conan hadn't asked her to find out if she was fine like one is fine while having a picnic, it was a 'fine' like not showing any symptoms of a disease. And at the moment she didn't and that cheered her up, at least enough to avoid her legs collapsing in fear.

As soon as they had unblocked the door their group went back to its normal formation. Conan leading it, Ai with Mitsuhiko behind him followed by Ayumi, Akito and Genta and at the end Alice who closed the door behind them. In her whole life Alice had always thought fear is easier to bear when one isn't alone, a group could grab the last glance of hope and make it grow. Like a snowball they could pass it around till it grew enormous, but in this night there didn't seem to be any last glance of hope so they just kept silent, worried looking around and exchanging glances, everyone searching for hope in the eyes of his friends, but seemingly no one found any and so they just made the fear grow. Conan kept looking around corners, Alice kept looking back and whenever they heard the smallest trance of a noise they all winced and didn't move for ages.

No wonder that Alice threw a look at her watch that said it was close to midnight; that meant they had needed 20 minutes to leave the classroom and reach the end of the corridor. As soon as they reached its end Conan peeked around the corner and so their group stopped walking again what gave them the time to exchange worried looks. Suddenly this was interrupted by Alice gasping. She just gasped because she saw Conan's eyes widening and though he was able to suppress a sound of surprise Alice was not. "What's there?" she whispered that low the usually Conan, who was standing maybe 2 feet away from her, had no chance to hear her but since the whole world seems to be drowned in unnatural silence he hissed back "Don't know… something is there in the corridor."

For someone who wasn't scared to death the following must have looked very amusing. The group of kids was shocked, but without moving or making a sound. So Ai clenched her teeth, Mitsuhiko widened his eyes, what made him looked like a little owl, Genta raised his fists, Ayumi closed her eyes and seemed to shrink and Akito threw an angry glare at Alice like it was her fault. And Alice… she walked up to Conan, she didn't wanted to, she just felt unwell all alone at the end of their group so her legs had started to move. When she recognized herself walking she needed something logical to do so she peeked around the corner too. Conan was right; there was some kind of shadow that didn't seem to belong to the others. It was tall and thin and slightly moving, like a human who was… "hung" Alice mouth formed the word without making any noise but Conan understood though. He nodded and reached out his hand. "Borrow me your flashlight?" he asked still glaring at the shadow and Alice handed it over. Her only question was "what if the light catches its attention?" and Conan hesitated "we need to make sure it won't follow us when we turn our backs at it so I have to find out what it is… in case it recognizes me… run." Alice wanted to protest, but he ignored her and pressed her lightly back behind the corner. Then he walked around the corner and left the others, first when he seemed to be sure whatever was there wouldn't spot his friends he switched the light on.

Except the light coming from behind the corner Alice couldn't see Conan and she didn't dare to peek around the corner, but he just didn't made any noise anymore. Conan also didn't seem to move judging from the edge of the light cone that was lying motionless on the floor. Through Alice head all those horrible but possible things rushed that could explain why he didn't move and finally she couldn't stand it anymore. Without wasting time by looking she walked around the corner and she felt her friends following her.

Their group froze too, some feet ahead Conan was standing and illuminating something white and humanlike, he wasn't moving just glaring at it like he'd been hypnotized. Before Alice could gasp she recognized what it was and slowly Conan, who must have heard them, turned around; his eyes emotionless looking at them and he was still illuminating the white thing. "It's a skeleton." He declared like a student who was asked to solve a task in class and pointed at it. "The school skeleton" he added and slowly his look turned pensive "I… I thought it was a corpse." And finally Alice understood that also Conan had been pondering about all those horrible things that could lead to such a shadow and now that he'd seen this skeleton, a thing they'd all seen in their daily life, it had shocked him that there was nothing shocking.

Alice and the others burst out in laughter; loud and with wet eyes they were laughing and Conan was still illuminating the skeleton looking sheepish. Still laughing Alice walked up to him and grabbed his hand to lead him back down the corridor, she couldn't help herself but she had too, at this moment he really looked like a 7-year old boy who needed help to understand what had happened and this look of his made her laugh even harder. While they finally reached their group he seemed to have sorted everything in his head and gave his friends an angry and embarrassed glare. "Haha, very funny" he said with a sarcastic voice to make his friends stop laughing. "If you won't shut up they will know where we are " he reminded them with a highly red face, but Ai just replied" are you sure they'd dare to come near this creeeepy skeleton" and ran the back of her hand over her wet eyes and now even Conan started to laugh.

It took them some moments to calm down but finally they started to move again but after this everyone felt obviously eased. They weren't walking in their usual formation they just walked through the school like they did every day. Ever and anon one of them looked around but except of this they were even chatting. "Here" Conan reached out his hand that held Alice flashlight "take it back, it didn't brought me any good" he added smiling a little embarrassed. "Keep it, yours is broken, right?" Alice replied as Conan slowly took the watch back. "Yeah… Haruka smashed it down on the floor… well she smashed _me_ down, to be exact." Alice smiled but it made her stomach tense "it's so horrible what's happening here" she mumbled and ran her hand over her arm, it was still bleeding. "You're ok?" he asked again and she sighed "yehesh! As long as you stop looking at me like I'm about to die I'm happy as a clam."

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><p>[Conan]<p>

Pretending to be annoyed Alice walked up to the head of their group and left Conan back. He knew she wasn't really annoyed but he also understood that she didn't want to talk about this anymore, whenever he asked her he reminded her of the fear and he was sorry for that but he couldn't just wait till anything happened or not. "And… is she ok?" Ai asked and appeared from behind him, since their group was walking through the school more relaxed Ai had taken the place at the end of it. "At least she says so" Conan replied and from Ai's face he could tell she was as worried and doubtful as he was and suddenly he had an idea.

"Ne Haibara, you're some sort of doctor aren't you?" he asked and as expected she looked at him and raised an eyebrow "some sort? Well yes, I studied medicine." She answered a little bugged. "Can't you examine her?"

"Iie" she shook her head and even though her answer came quickly, what made him think she also thought about this, she seemed to become pensive. "Usually I could, but I'd need any kind of equipment… Though…" she hesitated and looked up to Alice what made Conan bend over to her "What?" he didn't care what she wanted to say, not even if it was good or bad he just wanted any information. "I'm just thinking… since we got this SMS from Naomi and Kita I can't get rid of the feeling I know this kind of disease."  
>"Really? You mean… You've heard of an illness that makes people really <em>eat<em> each other?" unbelieving Conan scanned his memory for a case where he heard about cannibalism but he seriously could only think of one and this was a case of ritual murder somewhere in a slum. "Well yes and no…" she started "before my research team in the organization came up with the receipt of APTX4869 we did some research on those old 'magic tricks' used by healers… just like Naomi and Kita mentioned in their SMS. One of those receipts we used on mice made them… well kill each other and occasional they even eat the corpses of their fellows… But they also showed other symptoms. They grew stronger and seemed to become resistant against pain, but at the same time they lost color and their immune system wasn't able to heal injuries anymore…"

"Did you find a remedy?" Conan asked and turned fully around to Ai and stopped walking "n… no, the mice died before we could come to any useful results so we gave up on it… It's just that their injuries don't heal, you see?" she asked and grabbed his arm to pull him on. "Yes ok I got it, but you need to have any clue how we can help them!"

"Yes… well some mice got back to normal after a little accident… One man who worked alongside me poured his Coke over one of the cages and the mice were alright within minutes… but this was when our research was nearly over and it were only mice, not humans… but Kudo what worries me is…"

"Hmm coke you say?" he mumbled and interrupted her "I wonder what in a coke…"

"Kudo!" she grabbed his shoulder and turned him around to her "their injuries did not heal!" she said slowly to make him understand and finally he got what was wanted to tell him. "When I asked Lilly if she was ok her arm was still bleeding…" he said and both looked at Alice. She was talking to Ayumi and ran her hand up to her arm; the cardigan that covered her wound had a huge red stain on it.

"She is infected" Conan mumbled and though he felt the fear about Alice increasing his stomach relaxed. At least now they knew it. "Yeah…" Ai agreed and with a lowered glance she followed their group again, seemingly it didn't cheered her up that know they knew it. "But how… the others must have been infected within minutes… why is Alice still ok?" Conan asked following Ai who glared at Alice again, her look was so worried that it surprised Conan when she spoke and her voice still sounded calm and calculating.

"There is just one reason why this is possible… one thing that distinguishes her from the others."

"APTX4869" he closed the sentence for her. "Yeah… something within it seems to suppress the disease" she explained and because Conan smiled released she shook her head "it doesn't mean it will stop it fully… Ok listen I'll give you a little digression concerning diseases. Most diseases are triggered by little bacteria, so to say little animals. Those animals run through your body and, depending on what kind of disease it is, they do you no good. If these bacteria, like in Lilly's case, come into a body where a drug is already doing its job, like here APTX4869, hey start to connect themselves with this drug, so to say the drug mutes the bacteria; it changes."

"So you mean that Lilly is infected, but the disease in her body is different from the disease the teachers and students got?" he asked and Ai slowly nodded "yeah… though we don't know how it changed…" she admitted and now Conan got why Ai was looking so worried up to Alice.

In his head the thoughts were running. He understood now what Ai was up to say. Though Alice was infected they couldn't tell what would happen to her… or _when_.

"So we aren't any smarten then we were before?" he asked and felt as fretful as before. He hated it not to have a single clue; it made him feel like he needed to run and find something that would help him to find out about everything that goes on. "I wouldn't say so." Ai said and look at him "let's just keep an eye on her. Maybe we can rank the rate the disease changed when we… well keep an eye on her."

Conan slowly nodded though he didn't like the way it sounded. Alice was no mouse in a laboratory but he knew Ai felt the same and he really didn't feel like starting a fight with her for something she felt guilty about too so he kept quiet. Something else was more important at the moment anyways… should they tell Alice about it?

"K…Kudo-kun… what's that?" it was the horrified tone in Ai's voice that made stop and look up.

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

While Ai and Conan had their talk about Alice Ai always tried to keep orientation so she could tell that they were close to the corridor to their own classrooms when she saw it. The door to the auditorium was off its hinges. Instantly their group slid closer together. They all understood that one of the cannibals had done this.

"Everyone keep quiet" Conan ordered and walked up to Mitsuhiko who was standing closest to the door. He gave Mitsuhiko a light push to show him to walk on and signalized the others at the same time to wait. While Mitsuhiko tiptoed by the door Ai understood Conan's plan. He wanted the guide one by one past the door, as silent as possible, so whatever was in there would simply not hear them. Ai felt eased, it could work, the auditorium was huge. Within there was a big stage and between this and the door was a even bigger auditorium so if the cannibal wasn't right beneath the door they could make it.

Within a minute Conan had guided nearly everyone past the door, only Alice and Ai were left and since Alice signalized her to walk Ai didn't saw any sense in discussing with her and wasting time so she walked and reached the others within seconds, though she had sworn it had been ages. Now it was Alice who walked up to Conan and by the time she was on the level of the door with him both winced. Ai couldn't tell why but Alice petrified and Conan and she glared at each other. A silent fight seemed to start between them, he signalized her to walk on, she shook her head, he pointed his finger at the other just like he wanted to order her to walk on and she rolled her eyes and walked up to the door of the auditorium to peek into it.

Conan wiped his hand over his face like he was barely able to stand how much she annoyed him then he threw a meaningful glance at Ai; it seemed to tell her that he and Alice would care about whatever caught their attention and Ai should bring the others out. And then Conan and Alice just vanished inside the room and left back an Ai with a group of kids behind her, not knowing what to do now.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	8. Fighting

**_Chapter 8: Cannibals like fighting_**

_:D whaaa so much medicine-talk in the last chap GOMEN! So to say sorry for that I wanted to let this chapter take place at a location I looove for horror stories, a theater (well an auditorium, but just use your imagination ;P) Enjoy :3_

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><p>[Alice]<p>

Alice peeked into the auditorium, as far as she could see it was abandoned… not that she could see too well. It was all dark in there, the only light came from the beamer. It was still throwing a freeze frame of some movie on the screen that hung in front of the stage. Alice gulped; though it was a movie for children it dipped the whole room in a slightly flickering and dim light that gave Alice the chills.

As soon as she had made the first step up to Conan while he guided them all past the auditorium she knew she wouldn't make it past it… not as easy as that. So when she was on level with Conan and the room and she heard the whimpering she wasn't too surprised, though she winced. She and Conan had caught it quickly; someone was in this room, someone who was hurt. Alice could tell from the tone of the whimper that this person wasn't one of the cannibals, it sounded much too hurt and scared and judging from Conan who wanted to enter the room too she knew she was right.

After their silent fight they were now sure they needed to get in there, they just needed to make sure there was no one left in this school they couldn't help and so after a while of peeking finally squeezed through the door and Alice followed him. She had to make sure the door wouldn't jar while they got through it since it was still out of its hinges.

It took her some time to manage it, but finally she had made it into the room and she saw Conan already walking down the auditorium, scanning every row he passed so she decided to do the same on the other side.

While walking down she did her best not to miss anything that could sit or lay in the rows and often she had to stop, her pulse suddenly rushing, just to see that what she saw was just a left bag or a jacket. Most likely the teachers had guided the students out before they could grab their stuff or before the teachers could switch of the beamer. Suddenly a voice cut through the monotone buzzing of the beamer and made Alice's heart skip a beat. It took her some time to understand it was Conan who had simply called her name. Now she panned the room for him and saw him some row beyond her, he had switched on her flashlight; he must have found the whimpering person.

Fast Alice rushed through the row she was standing in and then down to Conan, just by now she recognized how it scared her to be alone in this auditorium. When Alice reached Conan she saw him kneeling on the floor at the beginning of a row close the stage; seemingly he was talking to someone. "Where are they?" was the first thing Alice could hear him asking and a female voice answered "I don't know" and to Alice's surprise the voice didn't sounded like the voice of a child. Finally she looked over the seats and saw a woman lying on the floor, her face was wet of tears and she looked scared to death. It must have been this new teacher Kobayashi-sensei told them about who was learning at their school. "How is she?" Alice whispered to Conan who shrugged. "She seems to be in shock, she isn't thinking clear but she said she isn't hurt."

Alice tilted her head, usually she'd always agree with Conan but this woman was so obviously hurt that she couldn't get how Conan was able to overlook it. "Conan, she got attacked, I mean look at her leg." Surprised Conan illuminated her leg and Alice saw his eyes widening… how could he have overlooked the wound? Ok it was dark in here but not too dark and a smell of blood surrounded the teacher.

Instantly Alice and Conan backed off. This teacher was injured, so she was infected. "What are we doing now?" Alice asked desperately and Conan bit his lip "we can't leave her like this" he said though Alice saw he wasn't sure if they really couldn't. A sudden crack like something had pushed hard against a seat interrupted their thoughts. Both turned around and saw the teacher pushing herself up, using one of the seats as a support; it was nearly cracking though the woman didn't looked too heavy. She ran her hand over her leg and looked at it with a confused glare, seemingly her leg didn't hurt. But before she could ask Conan and Alice what was up, something else changed her look. She glared at the two kids in front of her and without saying a word both understood they had lost her, she was now fully infected.

"_This is how we die."_ Alice decided, "_we wanted to help someone and this person will now kill us."_ "Ueda-sensei" Conan really spoke to her, just like he wanted to check if she still knew her name.

She didn't answer, she just bared her teeth and Alice did her best to suppress the urge to run away; every sudden move could be their last. Just when Alice started to wonder what would happen if she and Conan wouldn't move at all a squeak cut through the air and made Conan, Ueda-sensei and Alice petrify.

Someone had opened the door to the auditorium and Alice closed her eyes. This had to be the other cannibals, they would crowd them and her last wish would be to die before she saw Conan die, when he suddenly shouted "Run away!" and she opened her eyes. He wasn't talking to Alice, for this he hadn't have to shout and when Alice glared up to the door she saw the detective boys, Ai and Akito standing there and glaring down to them. Without hesitation the group vanished behind the door and this was what caught Ueda-sensei's attention. She walked out of the row and hunger entered her eyes, she was ready to rush up to the kids and kill them and Alice couldn't move.

Before Ueda could start running Conan grabbed her arm. Alice couldn't believe that he _touched_ her. She was still much too scared to even stand her look and he really wanted to stop her. Ueda didn't seem to be impressed by Conan as much as Alice was. She threw an angry look at him and with a kick of her arm she pushed him down the last rows to the ground of the auditorium where he hit head first the floor and didn't move anymore.

After this, some weird things happened very fast. Ueda and Alice both tilted their heads and glared down to Conan, then they looked at each other and Ueda hissed at Alice and slowly, nearly proud, Ueda walked down the rows to the floor. She had already walked past Alice when she understood what this cannibal was up to do.

"Shinichi! SHINCHIIII!" she shouted but he wasn't moving, he must have been unconscious… of course he were his head was bleeding.

Panic spread within Alice's head, it crowded out all thought why Ueda-sensei had spared her and fulfilled her mind. She needed to help Conan, but what could _she_ do? Desperately she panned the seats close to her; she needed anything to make Ueda stop, but the only thing Alice found was a jacket and a bento and though she threw the bento at Ueda it didn't show any effect. In secret Alice had hoped it would make Ueda attack her like the globe made the headmaster ignore Ai, but Ueda didn't seem to show any interest in Alice. Fighting tears of undiluted fear Alice walked backwards till her back met a hard thing.

Instantly she turned around; it was a little door handle and without a clue what she was doing she pushed it down and opened the little chamber at the side of the auditorium. She found nothing but a broom and some buckets.

When Alice spent a summer while she was 12 with her family in England her mother showed her which points of a human body one had to hit to make him pass out, but she wasn't sure if that would also apply to anthropophagous monsters. She ignored all her doubts and grabbed the broom, closed the door and head for attack. She had done this millionth time to dummies, she knew exactly how hard she had to hit and which point she had to aim but this time, when she hit the broom onto the shoulder of Ueda-sensei, it broke and growling her teacher collapsed. Alice couldn't say if she'd hit harder because she was scared or what in the world gave her such a power but for now she was just glad when she saw Conan looking at her, supporting his head with his hand and she knew he wouldn't be eaten.

"Not bad" he smiled while she rushed down to him. "Are you ok?" she asked and looked at his head, she'd been right, it was bleeding but it was just a small wound, barely visible. Alice's stomach tensed and she got up like a bat out of hell. Conan raised an eyebrow "are you alright?" he asked when suddenly Ai and the other joined them. Conan started to explain what happened, how they had found Ueda and that she attacked him and finally that Alice knocked her out. During all this Alice nodded ever and anon without listening. She hugged herself to make her body stop shivering and she leaned against the wall of the auditorium.

It had taken her till now to understand it… she was infected… and sooner or later she would become one of those cannibals. She finally understood that this was the reason why her eyes didn't had such a problem with the darkness, that this was the reason why she was strong enough to brake a broom and knock a cannibal out and that this was the reason why Ueda-sensei had no interest in eating her. She first understood it when she saw Conan's wound, it was small… how did she knew about it while she was standing some rows higher? She could barley she _him_, how could she know about the wound. Just by now she understood it, it was the same reason why she knew about Ueda's wound. She had _smelled_ it! She had smelled the blood and while she kneeled down to Conan looking at this wound of his she felt something awkward.

While she thought about it she hugged her arms closer around herself, just like she wanted to keep hold of herself. "Ok, let's go" Conan said and pulled Alice out of her thoughts. He'd finished telling the others what happened and now they were ready to go. Alice hesitated. She reached into her pocked and got a patch. "You should cover this as long as we're in here" she mumbled and bandaged him. Afterwards they all left the auditorium and continued their journey to the main entrance again.

While walking Alice went back to her usual place at the end of the group, but this time she wanted to be the last because she couldn't bear any looks at the moment. Still trying to keep hold of herself she pondered. She wanted to bandage Conan for two reasons. First if she was able to smell his blood, the other cannibals would be too and second… because she needed to test herself, she wanted to make sure the feeling she had have the last time she was close his wound wasn't just imagination. _"It's no imagination… I was close his blood and I enjoy it."_

* * *

><p>[Ai]<p>

Ai shivered and wrapped her cardigan some closer around her. She felt exhausted and queasy. All these sudden changes between fear and bliss and then the increasing foreboding of coming horror, all this made her feel like being trapped in some sort of horror movie, a movie she couldn't switch out when it became too much.

She looked around in their little group everyone's faces showed another expression. The detective boys who only understood that some minutes ago a little girl had knocked out a cannibal where looking nearly happy and Ai was glad about that, the last thing she needed were the kids panicking… she just wouldn't know how to calm them. Akito's face was lowered. Though he didn't seemed to be scared he wasn't happy either. He looked more like he'd finally understood that all this was happening because of him and though he was a child Ai didn't feel like cheering him up.

Conan's face was the most difficult to read. Ai couldn't tell what was going on in his mind; he hadn't said a word since they were walking again and soon she gave up on trying it. At the moment there was only one person Ai felt like talking to. Alice.

Slowly Ai slowed down till she was on level with Alice, on her face were so many emotions shown that Ai couldn't tell which really showed how her friend felt. "Did you tell him?" Alice asked suddenly not looking at Ai blinked; she had thought it would be difficult to make Alice talk. "U… uhm" Ai began not sure what to say and finally Alice looked up at her, her eyes were dry but she looked like she was crying though. "I am infected, I know and I know you know it too… so did you tell Conan about it or not?"

Ai opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but she just didn't knew where to start. When had Alice understood it? How did she knew Ai knew it? But Ai decided to nod "yes… gomen nasai." Alice smiled and looked down again.

"He can be such an idiot" she mumbled and just like an answer to Ai's unspoken question she added "he knew what I'm up to become and he really dared to be alone with me."

"Lilly!" Ai said; she didn't want to hear this. Ai didn't want Alice to give up and maybe accept her face, just because _Ai_ didn't want to accept it.

"I think…" Alice began and ignored Ai's interruption "I think somehow this disease affects me different than the others… but I'm sure you already know."

Finally Ai nodded "yeah… because of APTX4869…" Alice nodded too. "Yeah, I thought so… and I think that's why I'm still myself… kinda. It's because you said APTX4869 attacks the body cells but spares the nerve tracts, so the brain. That's why our bodies are the bodies of kids but our mind is still the one of a teenager."

Ai's eyes widened. She hadn't thought about that, but it was obvious. When this disease really connected itself to APTX4869 it would first affect the body, it would make Alice become pale and strong but would it really spare her mind?

Suddenly Ai hesitated "wait! What do you mean with kinda?" Alice look turned dark again, she shrugged and stopped in the middle of this move then she said "that's why I said I'm becoming one of them… sooner or later it will make me... lose control."

Ai clenched her teeth. 'Lose control'…? Did that mean Alice was at the moment controlling it? Was she fighting the urge to… eat someone? Ai shook her head like she wanted to make this thought simply fall out of her head. How ridicules. It was Alice she was thinking of.

"Ai you need to promise me something." Alice said and her voice suddenly sounded calm. "Don't let me hurt anyone." Ai saw her clenching her fist "No matter how, don't let me actually hurt someone. Even if you have to…"

"Lilly! You could never" Alice smiled and in the darkness of the corridor Ai really thought she was looking at Akemi when their group walked past a window and a moonbeam showed her that this wasn't Akemi's face, it was Lilly's and it had become frightening pale. "Just in case, you know… when we were in the auditorium I thought for a minute Conan and I would die… I don't want to sound brave or something, if you'd been there you'd seen what a coward I've been, I just wished I would die before I see Shinichi die. It's that I've indeed been scared to die… I still am, but more… _most,_ I'm scared to see him die and if it would be my fault… well I'd prefer to die. And the same goes for hurting the kids, or you."

Ai felt chocked. She didn't want this task, she didn't want to be the one to hurt Lilly either and maybe Lilly understood that so she added "if you really have to… just keep in mind that's this wouldn't be me. The one who really killed me is this disease… I know it's much to ask you, it's just that you're the only one who can do it."

Ai gulped, she nodded, unwilling and even angry at Alice but she nodded. Hopefully this would be a promise she never had to deliver.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Again he had to close his eyes and it took him some time till he was able to open them fully. His head ached and every time they walked past a window the light from the outside was enough to torture his eyes and make his head ache again. This night Conan had twice been thrown to the floor and hit it with his head, also his lack of sleep made its presence felt and supported the headache.

Nearly angry about his own weakness Conan opened his eyes wide after being dazzled and earned a shot of pain through his head which he ignored. There were things that needed his attention more than this pain, for example Alice's look… he couldn't forget about it. When she had seen his wound her eyes had widened in fear and sorrow and first he had thought the wound had been huge, but it wasn't so there needed to be another reason for Alice to look at him like that.

"_She knows it"_ Conan understood and touched the patch on his head. What had she thought when she saw his blood? It must have been something horrible, something she blamed herself for so she backed off from him.

"Alice!" Ai screamed and Conan winced. He turned around and saw Ai and Alice standing at the end of their group, all eyes on Alice who was leaning against the wall, her face was pale and twisted in pain. Her eyes were closed and her teeth clenched together like she wanted to lock away a scream that tried to make its way out of her mouth. She had wrapped her arm around her stomach and Ai was standing nearby, her hand raised like she wanted to help Alice but couldn't think of a way to do so.

"Just gimme a moment" Alice said lowly, before another shot of pain seemed to rush through her body and made her slight down on the wall. Conan rushed up to her, while walking he saw the faces of the children, they all looked worried at Alice, only Akito seemed to have slight away some inches from her.

Conan kneeled down beneath Alice "are you ok?"

"_What a silly question, obviously she is not!"_ Conan shouted at himself in his head.

Alice nodded though "it's all right, just let me stand up again" and Conan propped her while she pressed herself up with her hand against on the wall. Conan just waited for Akito to say something silly again, something about Alice being infected, but maybe he'd known it all the time, or maybe he had finally understood whose fault it was, either way Akito kept quiet.

"Ok" Alice said after she had regained balance "let's go, we shouldn't waist more time." She said it like an excuse for holding up the other and so everyone slowly started walking again. Ai had took the lead and Conan was walking beneath Alice, in case she would slump again he wanted to keep an eye on her, but she seemed to be ok, except her face. Conan saw something on it he'd just felt himself. Anger about one's own weakness.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	9. Snacks

**_Chapter 9: Cannibals like snacks_**

_I was thinking about this chapter for a long time… I seriously didn't know if to put this in or leave it out instead… It's a good idea, I really think so, and it supports the story, otherwise I wouldn't write it, but it's also… cruel. So if you ever feel like skipping the chapter, just do it. I won't put too much important information within it and the important bits will be repeated later on. So, as you can see, I decided to put it in. It's just a great way to show the conflict contained in my story and since it's already a M story… well, why not :D Please enjoy_

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><p>[Alice]<p>

Alice took every step carefully. Her fists were clenched but except of this she felt better. Just some minutes ago her whole body seemed to contract like it wanted to crush itself, she couldn't tell why, but it did and then it stopped as soon as it had started and left her with an empty feeling of bliss, even the feeling of fear had vanished and she knew she had just grown a lot stronger… though the fear had returned by now.

From the corner of her eye she saw Conan, he was walking close to her and seemingly he tried to keep an eye on her without her recognizing.

"_Idiot"_ she thought _"even now that it is more than obvious, you stay. Even now you dare to be alone with me; close to me..?. I'd prefer you'd tell me to leave… just sent me away…"_

"Idiot." Alice turned around and saw Conan smiling… he'd just called her an idiot. "That's what you think right?" he added and their eyes met. She'd never told him that she didn't like blue eyed boys… how came it she felt like melting away when his blue eyes met her?

"I'd been dead by now, if you hadn't been there… and Ai too by the way."

"Great" she replied "so if I kill you, we're even?"

Conan laughed "kill us? Why should you?" Alice's look darkened, she felt anger chocking her. "Why?" she asked with a shrill voice "oh I dunno… maybe just because I'm slowly turning into a hungry MONSTER?" Both had stopped walking and while his smile seemed to widen more and more, Alice slowly felt hot tears rolling down her cheeks. She hadn't shouted at Conan very often, but this time she couldn't help it. There were so many things in her mind and now they all burst out. "Well I thought about that… I honestly don't see that happen" Conan said calmly and still happy like they were having a nice little chatter. "You know APTX4869 spared the mind and…"

"BAAAAKAAAA!" Alice had shouted now that loud that she even closer her eyes, most likely she looked hysterically but she couldn't help it, she had missed the point where one can swallow his anger and talk calmly, and head right for the point where one screamed and cried no matter how many children were looking at them and no matter how many cannibals might be around. It wasn't even that she was angry at Conan, she was angry at herself for letting this cannibal hurt her.

"You think I won't change? You think I will just grow stronger and we will find a remedy and everything will end happily? You're wrong! I will lose control, sooner or later I will be a danger to all of you. STOP SMILING! How can you smile when I was close to your blood and enjoyed it?"

She'd said it without thinking, she felt like it had been within her since ages and it killed her from inside. For a moment silence returned, the only noise around was Alice sobbing while she stared at Conan's face, no trace of doubt had entered it, not even when she told him what she felt when she saw his blood and still felt while thinking about it. "You couldn't be a danger to anyone."

A little voice, Ayumi's voice, appeared right from Alice. Just by now she understood the rest of their group was actually around and had, maybe for the first time, seen her act like she'd lost her mind.

"And in this SMS from Naomi-neechan and Kita-neechan a remedy was mentioned… it should be possible." Mitsuhiko added and Genta nodded agreeing. "Ayumi's right, you're our friend, not our foe" he said and Alice blinked. "It's not about being friend or foe" she mumbled.

"Yeah, you're right" Akito suddenly said and threw a skeptical glare at her "I mean those cannibals aren't foes either… Though they seem to be pretty dump, no one of them was able to suppress it as long as you." Everyone glared at Akito, Alice wasn't sure but seemingly he had just tried to be nice "I just mean that if I get killed, I prefer to get killed by the smartest of them" he added and looked away a little embarrassed.

"I think you were overruled Alice." Ai broke the silence and smiled "Either we all get saved… or no one" and everyone nodded to show that they agreed with Ai "minna" Alice said touched and Ai put on the face she always used when she wanted to cheer someone up "Ok, the main entrance is maybe three corridors ahead, let's just get out of here" with these words Ai turned around and the kids followed her, humming the hymn of the Teitan elementary.

Alice wiped away the left tears. "Gosh, sometimes they can be dead-on" Conan said and Alice looked back at him "I mean, I could also have said it, but maybe it hadn't have the same result" he smirked and though Alice felt touched she still couldn't get rid of the chocking feeling.

"You know they are wrong, I'm only me because of APTX4869, otherwise I… it's not because of strength… I" she started but he shook his head. "This is just what I was talking about. APTX4869 gives you a chance, you can fight it, just keep it like this for some longer and we will find a remedy." Finally she understood why he'd kept smiling for the whole time and she felt kinda silly, she had really acted like a lunatic, but the weird thing about lunacy-attacks is, that afterwards you always feel better.

"Let's go" Conan said and grabbed her hand. "I didn't want to shout" Alice mumbled excusing while she felt the warmth of his hand spreading though her whole body. "I think I'll survive it" he replied and opened his mouth to say something else but Alice had to interrupt him, she finally understood why she felt choked since they entered this corridor. Panicking she glared at the rest of their group that had nearly reached the corner to the next corridor.

"Oh no" she murmured with wide eyes. "What?" Conan asked suddenly sounding worried too. "Blood" she simply said "a whole lot of it, right behind this corner." Without wasting any more time Conan and Alice rushed down the corridor to stop their friends.

* * *

><p>[Conan]<p>

Conan and Alice ran down the corridor to stop their friends from reaching the corner, just when Conan though it couldn't become much worse Alice had smelled blood. While running he twisted his mouth. 'Alice smelled blood' sounded too awkward to him, but he couldn't think of a different way to call it.

"Minna wait!" Alice shouted and made the others stop singing and turn around to them. Finally they had caught up with them and Alice slowed down. Conan ran past them and first slowed down when he'd reached the corner. Slowly, carefully not to make a sound, he peeked around it. Now that he was this close to the corridor even he could smell it. It reeked of blood and rot so Conan had to cover his nose and mouth with his hand. They had found the rest of the school staff. Seemingly the teachers were too busy with guiding out the students so the staff like janitors, secretaries and even the nurse was forgotten and overtaken by the cannibals.

Everywhere in this corridor Conan could spot corpses, at least parts of such. Some left arms, blood smeared on the walls and floor, tattered cloth and here and there some bodies at a stretch. "Who… who's there?" Ayumi asked from behind Conan and pulled his mind back from this surreal scenery that looked so much like the stage of a cheap splatter-movie.

He returned to their group where everyone stared at him with worried faces. "No cannibals…" he begun and saw his friends relaxing "b... but" he added and hesitated. How should he tell them that they had to walk across a corridor filled with body parts to make it out of the school?

"A new corpse?" Ai asked since he had stopped talking and he rubbed his head "w… well close" he replied and tried to sound amused. Of course this was horrible, but most likely this corridor was less dangerous than any of the corridors and rooms they had left behind, returning would be suicide and so Conan sighed and decided to tell them plainly what they were up to see, though he spared them the details.

"M…many?" Ayumi shrieked with her fists in front of her mouth like she was up to protect herself "How many?"

"Just close your eyes" Genta said with a face nearly as pale as Alice's. He grabbed Ayumi's hand and walked up to the corner. "Conan is right, we could leave school within minutes, we just need to keep our eyes closed and… pretend they are dolls, you know? Just like in a haunted house in Tropical Land."

Everyone nodded agreeing and Conan was secretly proud of the kids, since he met them they had gone through a lot of horrible things but seemingly they had learned when it was ok to be scared and when one just needed to be brave.

Slowly their group continued their journey. Genta leading Ayumi while he tried to keep his eyes away from the corpses, Mitsuhiko, Akito and Ai behind them at which Mitsuhiko and Akito where kinda guided by Ai and at the end Conan and Alice. They were all covering their noses and mouths while walking across the corridor but though Conan and Alice were the ones who had seen most corpses Conan slowly got the impression that Alice was suffering most. She pressed her hand that hard against her face that he saw her ankles becoming white, also she'd closed her eyes and shook her head ever and anon. Slightly worried he laid his hand on her shoulder what made her wince. Instantly she opened her eyes and turned around to him. "G…gomen" he said; he didn't mean to frighten her but she slowly lowered the hand in front of her face and mumbled "go ahead."

"What?" he raised his eyebrow, he must have misunderstood her. "Go ahead" she repeated this time a little louder while she avoided his look. Conan grabbed her hand, why for god's sake would she want to stay longer in this corridor than necessary? "I can't…" she said and pulled her hand away from him. "You can't? But we're nearly through" Conan said and this time his voice grew louder. How could she have forgotten about their last talk by now? Hadn't she understood that Conan wouldn't leave her back?

"I can't wait anymore!" she suddenly hissed and threw a meaningful glare at him. Though Conan understood that her 'I can't…' didn't mean she wanted them to go without her he didn't got what it should mean instead.

"W… wait?" he asked confused and she lowered her face "I'm hungry."

Conan and Alice both stood petrified in the middle of the corridor, at 1 a.m., surrounded by corpses and both not knowing what to say. It was weird but at this moment Conan couldn't have thought about a sentence that would have scared him like this simple one he'd heard and said himself that often. "Y… you… I… mean… huh?" he stuttered but ended up with just glaring at her. "Just give me a minute, I'll catch up with you later… I just don't want you to see it."

For a moment Conan didn't had a clue what she wanted to tell him, he tilted his head but froze within the move; finally he got what she was asking for and why she'd covered her nose and mouth that desperately.

"Y… you mean you want to eat… them!" he asked and understood too late that his shocked tone made Alice give him a hurt and ashamed look. "No!" she said and rubbed her arm fretful "but… I have to. Ok? I haven't eaten something in hours and they smell this… delicious."

He gulped; the smell of rot and blood all around would have deserved many adjectives… but 'delicious'…?

"A… and what about a candy bar instead?" he asked half hopefully, like she would just facepalm and say _'of coooours, why haven't I thought about that myself before I decided to eat human flesh.'_

But of course she shook her head "Genta already offered me one… it tasted so… rotten and this smell…" she shivered in disgust. "Please, just go ahead… I mean, they're already dead after all. It won't hurt them." Conan hesitated… should he stop her? But what if he'd regretted it later on when her hunger increased? "Ok… I'll wait for…"

"NO!" she interrupted him sharply "if you just go ahead we can pretend this never happened, but if you see me… NO!" she shook her head and slowly, unwillingly Conan moved on. He made sure he didn't look back and also he did his best to ignore the film that just played in his head where he saw Lilly feeding on something bloody. Only when he nearly ran into Ai, Mitsuhiko and Akito he recognized that he'd quickened his pace to avoid hearing possible eating-sounds.

"The door!" Ayumi and squeaked happily and pointed at the main entrance they could finally see after they had walked around the corner. The corridor they had now entered looked so absolutely different from the corridor with all the corpses that Conan doubted for a moment both corridors really belonged to the same place. This corridor was clean and even the smell was barely perceptible and at the end of it he could spot the main entrance. He was sure he'd never seen a better door in his life. It seemed so close and bright that he could barely suppress the urge to run up to it. Retrospective this night had even to Conan been one of the most horrible ones he'd ever gone through.

"Where's Alice?" Akito asked suddenly and destroyed any feeling of hope again. Alice wasn't there; she hadn't caught up with them. Conan cursed. She'd promised she'd catch up with them. Fast he turned away from the bright door and rushed back to the corner and peeked into the bloody corridor again. Instantly he ran into Alice. "Ouch!" both cursed and rubbed their foreheads. Slowly Conan looked up "sorry minna" Alice said still rubbing her head and gave her friends a short smile "I was walking really slowly; anyways let's get out of here." And nearly happy they all rushed up to the door.

Conan threw an examining look at Alice; nothing on her indicated that she'd just eaten a corpse… maybe that was why she'd been this slow; she had made sure no one could tell later what she'd just done. "We need to be fast." She suddenly said and her smile vanished.

"Why?" he asked though he was sure he already knew the answer. "I heard them, the cannibals are close. I didn't want to scare the kids, but we've no time left to waste."

And just like they wanted to proof Alice was right Conan could hear the irregular footsteps of many people from behind them… and they were approaching fast.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	10. Fresh Air

**_Chapter 10: Cannibals like fresh air_**

_Finally! :) yay x3 As you can tell from the title our friends will finally make it out of the school and this is also to me a release :D yes, yes, I'm a cruel-cannibal of an author so don't get me wrong :} I enjoyed the bloody-school-scenery. It's just that I wanted to try out some weather-metaphors since AGES and this happens to be quiet difficult in a building ;P_

_What? Did you honestly think I'd ever get tired of blood? :}_

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><p>[Conan]<p>

The echo of their footsteps was bouncing off the walls while their group was running through the last corridor down to the main entrance. Conan and Alice where the last ones to run, to make sure no one would stay back, no one would be forgotten, no one would trip and fall and be left to the cannibals who were still approaching fast, even though Conan couldn't see them yet.

He still couldn't believe they were this close to make it out. They had gone through fights against cannibals and each other, they had gone through fear and disgust and now this would all come to an end. Ok… they still needed to find a remedy for this disease but Conan just felt that this would be a walk in the park compared to this past night.

With a clear snap-sound Mitsuhiko, who had reached the door first, unlocked the door's safety lock and opened it. Though Conan knew it was impossible he'd sworn he felt the fresh, untainted air intrude into the school and made them run even faster.

Within seconds they had made it. They rushed through the open door out into the pleasant freshness of the night and turned around instantly. Together they pushed the door shut and Conan locked it with the safety lock from the outside. A last snap from this lock and suddenly everything was silent. Not as silent as it was within the school, where every sound seemed unwelcome. This silence was interrupted by heavy breaths, the sound of the wind blowing around them and even the hooting of an owl from a tree nearby. Their whole group was beaming; they had made it. Ayumi suddenly glombsed Conan, Mitsuhiko, Genta and Akito instantly started to discuss something and Ai made some steps onto the schoolyard, likely to find out where the other teachers and students would wait.

Conan managed a way out of Ayumi's arms and looked around… the one he felt like hugging was missing.

"A…Alice?" he mumbled and felt a well-known feeling of fear returning. "Alice!?" he asked this time a lot louder; his question stood unanswered. He turned his head around but Alice persisted to be gone and with every time he turned around his headache and fear increased. Finally, just from the corner of his eye he spotted her, a blurred shape behind the glass door they had just locked. He rushed to the main entrance again and pressed his hands against the door. What the hell was she doing in there? He was sure no one had been behind him when he left the school and no one was standing there when they locked the door. But undeniable Alice was standing on the other side of the door and giving him a sad smile. Had she hid to manage that?

Conan reached for the lock of the door again and clicked it open then he grabbed the door handle and tried to press it down. He failed. He tried again… and again but the handle didn't move. "Alice!" he shouted but the girl just continued her sad smile. "You were right" she finally said, muffled through the thick glass of the door. "We mustn't let them escape. That was why we couldn't escape through a window; we chose this door to make sure _all _cannibals will stay inside."

Conan's eyes widened "Lilly! Don't be silly, you're not… gosh what did you do to the door handle?!" he asked exhausted from pushing the handle down with his whole weight, the handle still didn't move. Suddenly Alice's look turned annoyed and so did the tone of her voice "nothing, I'm just holding it." Conan blinked and saw though the glass that she was right, her hand was simply pressing the handle up from within the school; her power really seemed to have increased. "Oh…" he mumbled "never mind! Let go of it! Come out, we'll find a remedy and…"

Alice pressed her free hand against the glass of the door and looked at Conan with wet eyes. "If you find a remedy then please come and rescue us, but as long as you don't have one it's safest for everyone if I stay within here, together with them." Just like they had heard Alice speaking about them Conan saw a group of cannibals rushing around the corner right up to Alice. They were pushing each other, struggling, drooling and hissing, everyone trying to be the first one to reach the door and get a bite of Conan and the others. Conan could spot some well-known faces; the headmaster and Kobayashi-sensei, also Haruka and Ueda-sensei and many, many others.

Alice turned around and Conan saw fear entering her eyes, this was ridicules! Alice was no cannibal, no infected monster; she was a girl and she hated horror movies more than anyone Conan knew, so how could she want to stay inside of one?

Conan laid his hand on the glass too, just on the level Alice's hand was laying and though they couldn't touch she smiled. "I'll lure them away from here Shinichi" Alice finally said and raised something from the floor Conan had overlooked until now. Some body parts and judging from Alice's look it took her lots of strength to not eat them herself. "Lil… I" he begun but the sound of the approaching cannibals interrupted him.

"I love you" she said and with a loud crack she broke off the handle; the door was no entirely locked. "NO!" Conan shouted but Alice turned around, running right up to the group of cannibals still holding the body parts and then, shortly before she ran into them she dodged and pressed herself close against the right wall and ran around the corner into the corridor with all the corpses. For a moment Conan saw the cannibals hesitating, maybe sniffing and then all turning around and hunting after Alice. And then… everything was silent again. The corridor Conan could see was abandoned.

Furiously he smashed his fist against the glass of the door; it quaked but didn't give in. "LILLY!" he shouted again but nothing happened. The silence just swallowed his screams and left them unanswered.

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><p>[Ai]<p>

She walked around the abandoned schoolyard. Though it must have been about 3 a.m. the air around was still pleasantly warm, not as choking warm as in the school, just warm and comforting. Ai looked up into the sky; she just recognized how much she missed looking at the sky, though it was grey and covered with heavy clouds it made her smile. Maybe it would start raining and thundering… That was just what she needed, a nice little thunderstorm with heavy raindrops to clean this night and take away its horror.

She took another deep breath and finally, smiling, she reached the entrance gate which was locked with a huge iron chain. Ai reached out and grabbed the sign someone had hung in front of this chain so she could read it. _'CAUTION! Please do not enter this area!'_ and beyond this someone wrote in handwriting _'If someone could escape from within the school, please stay calm and wait here. The police will come and rescue you soon.' _Ai sighed and let go of the sign which swung back. Seemingly they had no other choice than really waiting here till someone would come to pick them up.

With her hands in the pockets of her cardigan Ai slowly walked back to the others. At least this would give them some time to think of a remedy… 3 a.m. … how long would it take to convince the police that there was a school full of cannibals and how long would it take the police to send them the help they needed?

"LILLY!" a scream and the sound of someone trying to crack something glassy interrupted Ai's happy mood. A picture of Conan calling for Alice and the group of cannibals breaking the door appeared in Ai's mind and made her run to the main entrance. To her very surprise she indeed saw Conan calling for Alice but there were no cannibals trying to break through the door, only the dark haired boy seemingly did his best to force his way inside.

Now, even faster, Ai ran up to him and grabbed his arms. It took her a lot of strength the pull him away from the door but finally she managed to turn him around to her.

"Kudo!" she hissed and tried to meet his eyes "what's wrong?!" Unwillingly, like it was a waste of time they didn't have, he explained Ai what had happened and her stomach contracted. She knew Alice had asked her to protect the others from her, but that she would go this far…

"Ok" she finally said and nodded.

"Ok?! How is that ok?!" Conan asked furious and opened his mouth again but she interrupted him. "I hate to say that but she is right. They won't hurt her; they only eat humans; they're not interested in eating each other…" Ai said and hesitated for a moment, this kinda made calling them 'cannibals' contradictory but she ignored it. "So… what?" Conan asked though he slowly calmed down "so that means you'll now use this brain of yours to find a remedy and then we'll cure all of them and rescue Lilly."

Conan crossed his arms and threw a doubtful glare at the main entrance like he was just deciding whether it was better to continue forcing the door open or doing what Ai said. As soon as Ai saw him nodding she said "very well" and left him alone. "Who is Lilly?" Ayumi asked when Ai walked up to the kids who were looking half worried half confused at Conan. "N… nobody" Ai replied hesitatingly "Conan was just worried and you know… not thinking clear, he wanted to say Alice" she said and luckily the kids believed her. Conan could be a genius when it came to solving a case or thinking logical about something, but as soon as his own feelings were concerned he could act like a real lunatic. Ai smiled. Lunacy always made her think of Alice and sad she glared at the glass door. Somewhere within this building Alice was likely running away or hiding from a bunch of cannibals. Ai knitted her eyebrows, how long would she possibly be Alice after all, she wondered.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	11. Remedy

**_Chapter 11: Cannibals like remedy_**

_o.O The last chapters were muuuuch too short m_ _m my apologies. I will try to make this chapter some longer :) It's just that we're slowly heading for the final and I seriously can't wait to write it *^* Hope you're a little excited too since this will be *drum roll* the last chapter __before__ the final :] whahaha!_

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><p>[Alice]<p>

While Alice was speeding down the dark corridors, away from the light she still felt how her hand had touched the cold glass of the door and saw Conan's face in her mind how he'd tried to stop her from this. She blinked away some tears, this was not the time to cry and be weak; she was just here because of her own weakness.

She speeded around another corner past the auditorium. It was funny that she was going the way that had taken them hours within minutes now, but pure fear quickened her pace. She didn't want to think about what would happen if the cannibals would catch up with her though they maybe wouldn't eat her it gave her the chills even be close to them.

Now she started to cry anyways. If she only had been able to think of a smarter plan than throwing a globe at a contagious cannibal she wouldn't run all alone threw corridors now, luring a bunch of cannibals away with body parts. At the moment more than 20 were following her; it happened that behind the corner more were waiting, which had spent the time with eating the remnants of the corpses.

Again she shook her head. Yes, she had to blame herself. If she'd only been strong enough to fight this disease, but no! She had even been too weak to properly protect Conan. She had even thought about killing him! Her mind wandered back to Conan, she missed him. She missed how he held her hand and how he looked at her and how he was close to her, with his warm breath, his bright eyes and his heart that was pumping his blood through his… _"Oh my god! Stop that!"_ She warned herself and shook her head once again, this time more insisting.

Finally she slowed down, the disease made itself felt, she had never been that fast in her whole life before, but badly those cannibals were fast too. Alice looked around, she was alone, indeed she could hear their footsteps but somehow she'd left them behind. She calmed her breath and tried to think what to do now. She doubted those cannibals would remember the way back to the main entrance, or even that they wanted to go there so it should be ok for her to find a place to hide till Conan found a remedy. A little calmed she entered the room she was close to. It was the classroom of the 1B; their own classroom. Somehow it made her feel better to be in a well-known room and so she dropped the body parts she'd used as a lure and looked around.

All of a sudden, a pain shot through her body. She wrapped her arms around her body like it could save her from this agony. She clenched her teeth. For the second time in her life she felt this kind of pain. It was as awful as the pain she felt while growing back to Lilly but it still absolute different. The pain while growing was clear, her body first felt hot and then like someone tried to tear it apart, but this new pain… It made her feel numb and still that horrible. Like a blood pressure cuff of a doctor had been wrapped around her whole body, a slow squeezing pain that left a choking numbness.

Just when she thought it'd stop because it ebbed, a new, even worse wave rushed over her. A painful moan made its way out of her mouth and forced her to her knees. She didn't want to die, not here, not yet, not all alone and just because of her own silliness. The pain ebbed again; hardly breathing she supported herself with her hands on the floor. She looked down onto the laminate and onto her own, pale and shivering hands. Before she was able to come to any sort of useful thought the pain increased again; slowly but this time it spread also into her head. "Sh…Shinichi… tasukete" she mumbled and clenched her fingers to fists; the pain reached a new heights and made her throw back her head and scream.

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><p>[Conan]<p>

"D… did you hear that?" Conan raised his head and glared back to the school. He, Ai and the kids had decided it'd be best to get some distance between them and the school, just in case one of the cannibals would glare out of a window. Ai threw a look at the school and then at him, she raised an eyebrow "what?" Conan just shook his head, for a moment he thought he'd heard someone calling his name, but most likely it had been the wind.

He turned around again and glared down at the scratchpad he'd have in his pocket. He'd noted down everything they knew about cannibals and everything Ai had told him about her experiments with the chemical and of course the thing that coke seemingly cured them. Conan sighed, fretful he rubbed his head that didn't want to stop aching then he glared at the school. Fast he peeked onto Alice's watch flashlight. 3:32 o'clock it said and again Conan sighed, glaring back at the scratchpad. He kept doing that now since 20 minutes but it didn't help him, he was no doctor, he was a detective. His job was getting the people who kill others, not to cure them. "Are you sure there's nothing else you know?" he asked Ai once again and, once again, she shook her head. "I told you that there isn't, I told you everything I know."

He growled annoyed "but that's not enough!" He didn't want to admit it but slowly he started to panic. If Ai wasn't able to think of a remedy, those doctors the police may sent wouldn't be too. And what should he do if finding a remedy would turn out as difficult as finding a remedy for APTX4869 was? Would Alice and the others be locked away?... Or… even worse? Again he scratched his head. "This is useless! If we can't just pour some coke over them we're…"

"Coke? If you want one, you could simply ask me." Genta suddenly interrupted Conan and hold up a red can of coke. Conan glared at the can like he'd seen a ghost. Genta honestly was carrying a kiosk with him. "Y… you can't be serious" Ai begun and Conan saw her throwing a doubtful look at him and at the coke. "But you said it worked" he replied also not 100% sure but he took the coke though. "Yes… but on mice! We don't know… I mean…" she stuttered but this was enough for Conan. Ai also thought it could work. "Ok, I'll try it" he decided.

"You… what?!" Ai asked with wide eyes and Conan jumped up. "It worked once and… seriously we don't have any other idea, right?" Conan saw Ai throwing a worried look away from the school, over to the horizon behind the city then, when he thought she'd make him stay, she nodded. "Ok, but listen…" she got up too and pulled him away from the kids. "We need to try this on Lilly first."

Conan raised an eyebrow, of course he also wanted to safe Alice, but she could be anywhere in the school and if it really worked it would be safest to let armed people go into the school and use the remedy. "Why…" he begun but Ai interrupted him "I told you APTX4869 changed the disease… I'm afraid… I mean… ok let's skip the medicine talk, some ingredients in APTX4869 suppress this disease, but others support it and… I think, no I'm sure… that on Lilly it could have a permanent effect."

Conan gulped "w… what? You mean the remedy could fail?"

Ai nodded "I watched her back then in the school… I think we have time till… sunrise." Conan's eyes widened. Sunrise was maybe 3 hours away. He put on a serious look "Ok, I'll find her; if it works on her we tell the police and they can cure the others, right?" Ai nodded and then she hesitated "what do you mean with _'I'll find her'_? Kudo-kun you won't…"

"Of course I'll go alone; you stay here with the others. Wait for the police; maybe find out what about coke cures the disease. I'll count on you Haibara." She grabbed his arm but he pulled it away "we don't have the time for that. If I'm not back until..." he peeked at Alice's watch again "5 a.m. you know I failed. Try to find a remedy anyways, rescue as many people as possible and… watch out, ok?" Ai knitted her eyebrows "why does anybody think I'm the right person to deliver horrible promises?" Conan smiled "thanks" he said and turned around.

"Kudo, don't forget: You have 2 hours, 3 until it's too late, stay away from their mouths since it's transmitted through saliva and FOR GOD'S SAKE RETURN… or I'll make you pay!" Conan nodded and rushed to the main entrance again. Finally they had a chance, determined he turned on his power-kick-boots. This was the last football the belt could make but he doubted this one ball would help him in there anyways. Carefully he aimed and then he shot.

The ball flew against the hinge of the door and it swung open. This was the only way he would be able to close the door again. Hesitantly he walked into the school, the warmth and the rotten smell returned to him and he twisted his mouth. Now he hurried to close the door again and lock it as good as possible. _"Ok, 2 hours, 3 until it's too late"_ he told himself and vanished inside the school.

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><p>[Akito]<p>

Akito saw Conan and Ai walked away from their group, it seemed like they had something to discuss in private again. He crossed his arms behind his head and glared at the school. Who'd thought this bow-girl would lock herself in there with a bunch of cannibals? What exactly was she? A lunatic? A freak? A cannibal? He looked away again. He still couldn't forget about her outburst. She cried she would hurt them… so that was not what she wanted. ..? He clenched his teeth, this would mean this disease would _force_ her to do it… and this would mean this all was his fault.

"This was not what I wanted" he mumbled and looked down on the ground. He felt the detective boys giving him an angry look. "Next time think about what you do" Genta said and Akito nodded. "Ai and Conan will fix everything" Ayumi said after a while of silence and Akito looked up to her. There was no smile on her beautiful face but he knew she tried to cheer him up though she was angry with him. "Right" Mitsuhiko mumbled agreeing "they can fix everything, you know?"

"Hey! Alice can too" Genta interrupted and Ayumi and Mitsuhiko snickered but nodded finally. "And we can too…?" Ayumi asked and looked at her friends. "Of course!" Mitsuhiko agreed "sure! We're the dreaded detective boys" Genta added.

"Dreaded?" a sober voice suddenly asked and Akito saw that Ai had returned. "Yeah, dreaded by all criminals and cannibals." Ayumi explain and they all started to laugh again only Ai and Akito remained silent. "W… what is he going to do?" Akito finally asked Ai, maybe he could help… maybe he could do something. "He'll try something out… he'll try to rescue Alice."

They all exchanged glares. "But isn't that dangerous…? I mean isn't she one of them by now?" Akito asked nervously and instantly the detective boys started jelling at him.

"Hey, I… I just mean she like this Conan, right? If I'd be her I wouldn't want him to be close to me while I'm… a danger to him…" to Akito's surprise his words made the others hush, they exchanged worried glared and Akito saw Ai look back at the school. "I promised her, I'd prevent this…" he heard her mumble.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	12. Conan

**_Chapter 12: Cannibals like Conan_**

_^^; I kinda failed with making the last chap longer, gomen! Aaaaanyways :} This won't happen again, this chapter will contain the main sequence *_* That means the reason why I wrote this FF, the main idea, the Johny Depp among the chapters…(yesh I like Johny) xD don't expect too much, it's still just me who's writing this ;3_

_Btw to celebrate this final (so the boss fight xD NOT THE END!), the whole chapter will be from Conan's point of view x3 isn't that enough of a reason why this chapter is great? :]_

_WARING! If you dislike the imagination of Alice and Conan having a physical relationship I'd advise you to skip this chapter. And please keep in mind: I do NOT in any way support physical relationships with or between children. BUT Alice/Lilly and Conan/Shinichi are actually adult. They just got shrunk ;) so relax and enjoy this chapter:_

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><p>[Conan]<p>

Conan was rushing through the school. Whenever he met a corner or heard the slightest trace of a noise he switched off the flashlight and hid behind a door or anything else close to him, then he ran on again with the flashlight in his hand. He knew it was dangerous, the light and the sound of his steps always could tell the cannibals where he was but he also knew he hadn't the time to tiptoe through the darkness of the school, to be serious he knew he hadn't _any_ time to waste.

When he reached the fire door the watch told him he'd already wasted 20 minutes. Breathing hard he glared around, scanning the corridor with the light cone. This was a dead end, the exit they wanted to reach since hours and it was abandoned. He cursed and increased his grab on the coke, how could the school be empty? No cannibals and no Lilly, actually no living person anywhere but him. He twisted his mouth, he'd been foolish. He'd thought he just needed to avoid the cannibals and would find Alice sitting in the middle of a corridor but of course she'd hid somewhere and since he did his best to be quiet she wouldn't even know he was in there.

Once again he thought he'd heard something he turned around, illuminating his surroundings, once again he was alone. He ran his hand under his glasses over his eyes, slowly his fatigue seemed to affect his nerves; since he entered the school he felt traced.

He sighed and started to walk back, it couldn't be helped, he needed to go back and this time maybe call for Alice, if he'd raise the attention of some cannibals, he'd to think of a way to deal with them. If he'd only knew where the hell Alice would hide… The first time he rushed through the school he'd checked all rooms, classrooms, the teacher's longue, even the toilets, every… single… _"Wait…!"_ he suddenly thought.

Without wasting any further time he ran through the corridors. There was a room he'd skipped, simply because he thought it ridicules that Alice would actually chose this room to hide because of what happened in there, but since he'd checked every other room it was the only one left. Soon he'd reached it. He squeezed himself through the door which was still out of it hinges and entered the big, dark room. Still the only light came from the beamer that had now switched into the standby mode and dipped the whole auditorium into a flickering blue light. _"Please change cleaner"_ some white letters on the screen said but as always they stood ignored. Conan scanned every row, every wooden seat and every gap a little girl could fit in; nothing.

"Lilly!" he shouted, now he'd abandoned every caution, Alice had to be in here; she had to! "LILLY!" again he stood unanswered, only his own echo, bouncing off the walls, returned to him. Furious he kicked his feet against some planks of the covering of the stage… CRACK. Conan blinked, the crack didn't come from the planks; it appeared some seconds too late for that. Slowly he raised his flashlight to illuminate the upper rows. CRACK. Again he heard the sound like something used a seat as a support like Ueda-sensei back then. "Lilly!?" he repeated a little hesitantly. Finally he got an answer, a long and deep moaning, sounding unreal, blurred though its own echo. Slowly, nearly tired a shape appeared nearly in the middle of the auditorium, it raised between two rows, most likely from the only place Conan's light cone couldn't have reached during his search.

The headmaster gave him a dump smile and showed some of his unusual white and sharp teeth while he slowly, in a slightly jittering way, walked through the row up to the hallway. Conan speed up the rows. He knew if the headmaster would make it to corner him down at the stage he'd have no chance to escape, his only chance was being faster than the headmaster was and pass by his row before he could reach the hallway. In secret Conan was prepared that the headmaster would start running as soon as Conan made his sudden move but for some reason he wasn't moving any faster and Conan could make it, he was faster and could reach the exit back to the corridors of the school.

Too many question where rushing through Conan's aching head. Where were the other cannibals? Where the heck was Lilly?! And why wasn't the headmaster hunting him? At least this question could be erased, because suddenly Conan heard steps behind him approaching, the headmaster seemed to have decided to hunt him though and suddenly he ran. Without hesitation Conan squeezed himself back through the door into the corridor and through himself against the door. Though he could hear the bones in his shoulder ache he was able to close and block the door that was still out of it hinges.

Since he knew about the headmaster's strength he knew it wouldn't last long, so Conan started to run right away. He wanted to turn back to the teacher's longue and to the fire door but when he turned left his blood ran cold. Haruka and some children that look like they've been the kids from the 4a stood in his way and hissed and moaned when they saw him. Conan shifted around and suddenly the corridor darkened and brightened again. Seemingly the battery of the flashlight was low. Conan rushed down the corridor to the main entrance and the class rooms of the 1st grade. While running he could clearly hear the door of the auditorium getting attacked, oddly it seemed that the group of kid-cannibals attacked it to help the headmaster.

"_Are they working together?!"_ Conan wondered still running. What was going on? He felt like those cannibals had managed it to trap him, but since when were those cannibals smart enough to come up with plans? Angry about his own levity he speeded around the corner to the corridor of corpses near the main entrance. He froze while the light flickered again. Kobayashi-sensei and the rest of the 4a were just waiting for him, some of them were feeding themselves on the last remnants of their victims but doubtless they had waited there for him trying to escape. Pressing the coke, this only remedy they'd found, against his chest he turned around on the spot. From the corner of his eye he'd seen something white on some of the cannibals, but he found no time to turn around again. That was it, he was trapped. The only corridor left was the one to the classrooms of the 1st grade and this was a dead end again and in addition he'd maybe meet the cannibals with Haruka and the headmaster before he'd even reach it.

He tried it anyways and luckily he reached the corridor before anyone could block it. He ran through it; this was hopeless. Even if he'd reach a classroom before they could catch him he was lost, he couldn't risk it to crush a window and escape through it; this would also build an exit for those hungry monsters. He turned back his head and saw the cannibals approaching, their pale faces and their smirks appeared at the beginning of the corridor and made Conan run on though he didn't knew why. Hardly breathing he leaned against the door of the 1B, his classroom. He tried to calm his breath and come up with any kind of the slightest trace of what could become a plan. He couldn't think of any… His only option was fighting a way though their crowd, though this seemed more than hopeless. The light around was now flickering more than it was shining and he knew soon it would die.

"_Well done Shinichi"_ he told himself and whipped away some swat from his face, still pressing the coke against his chest. This wouldn't be enough to cure all of them and it was meant to heal Alice anyways. He clenched his teeth. _"Lilly…"_ he thought and suddenly felt like losing balance.

It took him some time to understand he was really and actually falling. Someone had opened the door he was leaning against from within the room. He felt a cold hand covering his mouth while another hand pulled him into the room. The last thing he saw was the door closing again from within the room then the light of the watched died fully.

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><p><em>Little break :) Eat, drink, take a nap :D just get ready for some more lunacy… Ready? Really?... :3 oki~ you've been warned:<em>

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><p>[Conan]<p>

The hand that had pulled Conan inside was now turning him around while the other hand still covered his mouth and prevented him from making a sound. He knew he was now looking at whatever was holding him, but still his eyes weren't used to the darkness around. He knew it though. He'd known it since he felt these delicate hands pulling him in with an unusual strength… who was there in this room with him.

"Why are you here?" Alice voice asked and slowly Conan could spot her face. It was that pale that it was nearly glowing. He gave her a short smile as soon as she'd removed her hand from his mouth. "We found a remedy!" he whispered and his smile widened, though it vanished soon again. "We need to hurry up, those cannibals are coming and…"

"Daijoubu" Alice said and smiled too "the door is blocked." Conan raised an eyebrow and saw the door that was oddly unshaped, being pressed into its border. "How…?" he began and Alice who knew what he wanted to asked replied "Shinichi, the classroom doors actually open to the corridor."

"O…oh" he mumbled. Alice had just opened this door to the classroom to pull him inside and closed it again, she'd grown really strong. "Anyways" she continued after a little break of silence "I'm glad you're back" she beamed in release and before Conan could reply anything she hugged him close.

Smiling he hugged her back. Still all the adrenaline was rushing through his body and he just couldn't believe he escaped death this shortly. Alice arms had slowly withdrawn from his back and found their way to his chest. She leaned herself against it and Conan saw her smiling "I hear your heartbeat" she mumbled happily and he blushed. It took him a lot not to kiss her, still this disease threw a spanner into their way and maybe she saw that on his face since she leaned back against his chest again. He wrapped his arms close around her, he was just released he really found her; just a minute ago he thought they would never meet again. He kissed her hair again and felt that she was slowly getting away from his chest. "I'm really glad you're back" she whispered and he felt her breath on his neck while she spoke. "I promised I would" he replied and then she kissed his neck, slowly, and dipped his brain for a moment into a slack state of bliss. Finally his headache ebbed and his fatigue made itself felt.

First a loud crack kinda brought him back. Something had seemingly lightly pushed against the door. A little embarrassed he smiled, "ok, I think we should finally use the remedy and get out of here."He looked down on Alice who slowly walked a step away from him; seemingly she was more annoyed about the disturbing crack than he was. "Right" she mumbled and walked around the room a little. "Did you hide here all the time?" Conan asked and looked around; he'd sworn he threw a look into this room too. "Yeah" she nodded and opened her cardigan and got out of it with an elegant move and let it fall down on the floor while still walking. Conan tilted his head a little; he found it odd to turn off clothes at a place where bare skin could directly lead to an infection, but most she was already infected, so maybe this threat was gone for her.

He let his eyes wander over her body, though it was the body of a 7-year old he could clearly imagine her older body; the fact that the only light came from the moon supported this. Finally his eyes paused on her arm, the arm that had been wounded. Seemingly she'd covered it with a new patch, it looked clean and white and…

Conan's eyes widened, this white patch had rang a bell in his memory. He'd seen this white before, just shortly… just from the corner of his eye but he had seen it. "L… Lilly" he begun, not knowing what he really wanted to ask her. She slowly stopped walking; she'd just reached the teacher's desk, smartly avoiding walking over one of the sleeping bags on the floor, and ran her hand over the wooden desk like she wanted to stroke it. Now that he started to speak she stopped, she looked at him with her hand still lying on the desk. "T… this patch" he started, he had seen this patch on some of the cannibals that had hunted him before and now she smiled again.

"I'm so glad you're back" she repeated and looked away from him, focused she watched her finger that was drawing invisible circles on the wood of the desk, just like she wanted to make sure not to make a mistake. "I really regretted telling you to stay away" she continued still absorbed by stroking the desk. "Yeah… but at least I could find a remedy" he said with an unpleasant feeling in his stomach and slowly spreading into the rest of his body. Conan raised the coke can and tried a smile "simply coke. You'll be ok again."

Alice nodded though her face didn't show any expression of feeling. Slightly confused Conan let his eyes wander through the class room. The sleeping bags on the floor were messy thrown over each other… and some were ripped apart. He squinted… were there scratches on the floor? It just looked like someone or something had suffered in huge pain and hooked it's fingernails into the floor and rag. "It hurt" she said suddenly and he fast looked up again, finally she was looking again. "I'm sorry" he mumbled and really felt it. "It's ok" she said happily and gave him an encouraging smile. "It wasn't your fault, actually it was mine."

Before Conan could say something he saw Alice looking out of the window "I was too weak, if I had been stronger I wouldn't have been infected and you didn't have to return to me anyways." She said calm and he shook his head "don't be silly, you couldn't…"

"But" she said like she hadn't heard him "I'm stronger now" she threw a huge smile at him "not only my body, my mind too." Conan gulped, the unpleasant feeling increased and he decided to go back to his first question.

"Lilly, why were some cannibals wearing patches like someone tried to vet them?" Alice kept looking at him while he spoke. "And why were they smart enough to work together?" Not even Alice's smile vanished. "And why… why did they seemingly block every other way than the one to the room where you were waiting?"

Alice smiled her nice and well-known smile "Isn't that simply awesome? They listen to me" she snickered "those scary monsters do whatever I tell them to. That was why this cannibal didn't follow us when we locked ourselves in the classroom of the 3rd grade, simply because I said so… of course I didn't knew that back then." Her snicker grew "but they aren't that dump. At least they saw it back then when I couldn't see it. They knew I would be strong, stronger than all of them and smarter. Thanks to APTX4869. And they accepted me as their leader." Her snicker had changed into an insane laughter, loud and echoing it sounded through the whole room and it felt like it sounded through the whole school.

Conan instinctively made half of a step backwards. This wasn't Lilly, not anymore. Conan looked at his girlfriend laughing in the moonshine and he knew she was gone, a cannibal had taken her place and it was strong.

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><p><em>Slaughter. It can't be spelled without laughter :DD whahaha, I luv this quote!<em>

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><p>[Conan]<p>

"So you made them block every way so I'd to come here?" he asked after her laughter had ebbed and she nodded happily, proudly about this plan of hers.

"It took me some time to get their trust but once I had it I knew they wouldn't dare to hurt you when I forbid them." Seemingly a lot more eased she pushed herself up onto the desk to sit onto it. "I'm really glad you're back. I really regretted telling you to stay away" she repeated once again chirping, but this time Conan didn't saw it as a compliment.

"Lilly you should really use the remedy" he said calmly, he didn't wanted to call this 'Lilly' it simply wasn't, it was a demon, something evil encroaching her body. "I thought you'd ask me that sooner or later" she said nodding.

He raised the coke can, still the time was fading away, he couldn't tell how much was left until this thing would have fully killed the Lilly he knew. "Trust me" he said without any emotion. "I always trusted you" she replied and her voice was as loving as always and Conan wished she wouldn't use this tone he knew that well and like so much, he'd prefer she would have screamed or cursed. "So maybe this time you should trust me" she continued and hopped down from the desk again.

"Trust you in what?" he asked while she walked up to him "in being a cannibal? In eating people? Do you want me to be like this too?" he asked and she shook her head sadly "Shinichi, why are you treating me like this? I don't want to hurt anyone, and I'd never wanted you to hurt anyone."  
>"So what do you want?" he said his eyes glued at the cannibal-Alice that was now only some feet away from him.<p>

"I want you." She said plainly and smiled again and he gave her a confused look.

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><p>[Conan]<p>

"Y… you want… huh?!" he asked, his calmness had vanished.

She snickered again "you. You're all I want; there is no one else on this world I want to eat but you."

He tried a half amused laughter "you may think this is a compliment, but… well I have some problems with getting eaten by a cannibal."

Her smile vanished, she looked sad. "I'm still myself, just Lilly."

"Oh really?" he asked now a little angry, he didn't want the imagination that this could actually _be_ Lilly. "When you've always been like this then I must have overlooked this insane laughter through the past few years."

"How rude" she said but started to walk slowly around him like she wanted to examine him closely.

"Lilly take the remedy" he insisted again and tried to get the calmness back while he was still looking ahead while she walked around him. Finally she'd finished her walk and returned in front of him; beaming.

"Looks like we both want something, huh?" he raised an eyebrow. "I mean you want me to take the remedy and I want to eat you. Let's make a deal" she said happily about her idea.

"A deal…?!" he asked "I don't think drinking a coke is even with being…"

"Eaten" she completed his sentence happy. "All of you; skin and flesh and blood and maybe even bones." While she spoke her eyes sparkled, she talked about it like it was a true proof of love and licked her lips.

"Well, it's my first and only offer." She closed and laid her hands together behind her back. Conan bit his lip. This was ridicules but he hadn't really another option, if he'd refuse this deal he was sure that it would be his death sentence and Alice would never take the remedy. After a while he nodded gulping. "Ok, deal… but you drink the remedy first."

Her smile faded. "But…" she started but he shook his head. "Your deal, my rules. If it's true what you say by the way, the remedy won't change you, right? You said you've always been like this and you will still want to eat me." She nodded challenged and reached for the coke. "So what should I do with it? Pour it over my head, swallow it?... Take a bath in it." While saying the last thing she threw a provoking look at him and he closed his eye for a moment embarrassed ignoring the pictures in his mind and then he opened his eyes again. "Just drink it" he said and she opened the can and raised it onto her mouth. Then everything was silent, the only audible thing was her drinking the remedy-coke.

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><p><em>Sry for all the silly comments =( I just need to get some structure in this 1-point-of-view-chapter and for this I wanted those little breaks =) forgive me.<em>

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><p>[Conan]<p>

After one minute of drinking Alice lowered the can again and showed it to Conan as a proof that it was empty; it was, she had really drank it. For a moment Conan glared at her, she was still smiling and then, suddenly, her eyes widened. She gasped and her eyes fell shot, she'd lost consciousness and fell to the floor. Conan dived forward and could catch her before she hit the floor. He smiled released. Finally. Finally this was over, the coke had worked and now this horrible night with all his surprises would have an end.

Slowly Alice opened her eyes and blinked. "S…Shinichi?" she asked and he smiled. "Yes?" he asked happily. "I can't believe…" she begun, seemingly too exhausted to speak "I can't believe you thought this would be that easy." His eyes widened and so did Alice's demonic smirk. She grabbed his arms with and pushed him down onto the floor so his glasses flew away and slight over the floor into the darkness. Struggling on the floor they hit the desk and the coke can, Alice had place on it, fell down. From the corner of his eye Conan saw it. The well-known logo "Coke" and there, in small letters beyond this it said "Light. 0 Sugar. 0 Problems." And if Conan hadn't had to fear for his life at this moment he'd smile about Genta's try to lose some weight.

"I delivered my part, now it's your turn" she decided and pressed Conan down on the floor. He knew she wasn't using half of her strength to keep him on the floor and a fight was hopeless. Why didn't the remedy work?! Why?! He clenched his teeth. This would be the last question he'd think about. He knew he had used some time to find Alice but not the 2 hours he'd asked from Ai so she wouldn't search for him yet and he was trapped, once again.

"Don't look at me like that" Alice said smiling "just close your eyes and relax" she still held him on the floor with her hands on his shoulders, her legs pressing down his legs. He threw a serious look at her "Lilly, come out with me. With your knowledge about the cannibals we're able to find the real remedy and we…" she shook her head. "You have to keep your word Shinichi" she lowered her head close to his and ran two fingers over his lips. "I did what you wanted me to do and now it's your turn." She kissed him and his eyes widened. He needed a new plan. He needed anything… anything… His mind clouded. He felt her hands on his shoulders slowly weakening their grab, she must knew he wouldn't move, as soon as he tried to stand up she pushed him down again. Suddenly he felt her opening his shirt and he tried to get his brain to work again though it was pretty difficult for him to do that while he felt Alice's tongue doing what it was doing at the moment in his mouth. Every time he was thinking about a way out, he met some sort of wall within his mind and fell back into the slack and comforting state. He tried to mumble something just to get some time but she ignored it. She slight one of her legs between his and one hand up to his hair and he lay there, waiting for her first bite.

All of a sudden Alice stopped kissing him and while Conan tried to breath her body went limp and collapsed on him. He opened his eyes and slowly those fluffy lulling clouds withdrew from his mind. He blinked and looked at Alice; she had lost consciousness. For a second he thought the remedy might have worked a little later but then a sober voice that made him wince said "my, is a tongue really enough to make you forget about everything?" Conan got up with Alice still lying on him and blinked. Ai was standing next to them and slowly lowered something that looked worryingly like a monstrous hammer. "D… did you hit her with that?!" he asked loud and glared at the huge tool. "Yup" she said plainly and nodded "oh don't look at me like this! She's strong now, this hammer might have killed a normal person but we're lucky if it knocks her out for some minutes."

He looked at Alice and now that Ai had said it he recognized Alice wasn't even bleeding. He picked himself up, still a little dizzy, and nodded. "Thanks" he said "you're welcome, but to be honest it was just a promise I gave Lilly some time ago."

Conan nodded, he understood what this mean and then he lifted Alice up. "How did you come inside?" he asked Ai suddenly confused and Ai raised an eyebrow. "I cracked the window open and came in… didn't you hear the glass braking?" Sheepishly he rubbed the back of his head "I was maybe a little distracted" he mumbled but Ai clicked her tongue dismissively "What? _'Distracted'_? That is slightly understated, I'd knocked her out earlier but I wasn't sure if this was actually happening with or without your permission." Conan's face turned red and he decided not to answer her comment. "Ok, let's go" he simply said and walked over to the broken window, still carrying Alice."But I cracked the window! Won't this be an exit for the cannibals?" Ai asked a little nervous but Conan shook his head. "No, Lilly blocked the door before, so they won't even be able to reach the window anyways."

Ai nodded and threw a worrying glare at Alice "I just… don't know what to do with her now" Conan mumbled and looked thoughtful at the window. "Lil will wake up soon and then she will attack us."

"We can use this" Ai said and raised a heavy iron chain she was holding in her other hand and because Conan threw an unbelieving look at her she smiled. Slowly Conan and Ai started to enchain Alice while Ai explained. "Akito reminded me that Lilly asked me to watch out she wouldn't hurt anyone and when I thought about her slowly changing into a cannibal the only logical resolution seemed to be she would spare other people but would try to eat you so we needed a plan to stop her from that. Soon the kids and I had found the old shed of the janitor and we cracked it open, we could find a lot of useful stuff in there; the hammer and the chain for example." Ai said and Conan lifted up the enchained Alice again.

"What are we doing now?" Ai asked. "We will use her knowledge about cannibals to get the real remedy" he replied and looked down at Alice's closed eyes. "For some reason the coke didn't work and we still need to heal her and the other" Conan decided with a lump in his throat. They hadn't much time left and with every minute they wasted the chance to get the old Alice back shrunk and instead her power grew.

Carefully Ai and Conan managed it to climb out of the window and carry Alice out too. Their only chance was working together with the cannibal-Alice when she woke up; luckily it was still somehow Lilly. The Lilly he knew since years, slightly crazy, straightforward and hopefully still aware of whom her friends were. At least one good thing had come up. Conan's headache had vanished though he still was breathing hardly.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	13. Deals

**_Chapter 13: Cannibals like deals_**

_Little warning! The next chapter contains horror, which I myself think is kinda… a lot. I know this a M story so everything's allowed, it's just that I think it's a little more than the rest of the story and I believe it's just fair to give people with weak nerves a warning :)_

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><p>[Ai]<p>

With the hammer still in her hand Ai hopped out of the broken window and landed on the dusty ground of the schoolyard. Fast she dropped the hammer and raised her hands and reached for Alice. Carefully Conan let her down into Ai's arms and hopped out of the window himself. For a moment Ai hold Alice's body close to hers. It was all cold, like the last trace of life had left it and Ai did her best to push away the feeling of sorrow that came up when she thought about the reason why her friend was now lying unconscious in her arms. It wasn't just the fact that she'd hit her some minutes ago with a huge hammer, it was more the fact that Alice got infected while she tried to rescue Ai.

Ai increased her grab on Alice. She hadn't ask her to do that, she had never asked her to sacrifice her own life for Ai's but she'd done it though… just like her. And now she'd left Ai all alone again… just like her. A hand on her shoulder brought Ai back, Conan stood behind her with the hammer in his hand, seemingly he understood what she was thinking about and so he let her carry the enchained Alice back to the others.

As soon as they had reached the others they could tell from the expressions on their faces that neither the police nor anyone else had shown up. "How is she?" Genta asked the question that could be read in the eyes of the others and since Ai didn't knew how to descript how Alice was, but Conan gave the kids a tired smile.

"Fine. Alice and I had a deal and with Ai's help I could convince her to help us to find a remedy. You 4 keep an eye out for help ok?" Conan asked with an exerted sanguine voice and Ai thought _"this means she tried to eat me up and Ai hit her head with a huge hammer."_ The kids nodded tiredly. Ai knew they all wanted to know why Alice was unconscious and enchained and if the coke worked but they could barely keep their eyes open and so Ai and Conan brought Alice over to the shed Ai and the others had cracked open and left the kids back to get some sleep.

She let Alice down beneath the shed and leaned herself against its wall, her eyes glued to a bug on the dusty floor. In the shape of a small growing circle the ground suddenly darkened just an inch beneath the bug. A second circle appeared and a third. By the time Ai looked up at the sky it was raining and heavy raindrops fell down on them. She closed her eyes while the drops of cold water slowly covered her face and body. This wasn't the kind of rain she had wished for; it was cold and stabbing.

"You can stop this now" Conan's voice made Ai open her eyes and she saw him throwing a glare at Alice who's lips suddenly curled to a smile. Ai looked at her while she opened her brown eyes and smiled a superior smile. "She's conscious?" Ai wondered out loud and Conan nodded. "Thanks for carrying me Ai-neechan" Alice said kind as ever and beamed grateful. Conan pushed Alice's leg with his foot. "Are you done with this show?" he asked annoyed and Ai felt like telling him that he couldn't be that rude to Alice when she saw her friend's look darken. The smile was gone and had been replaced by a look she'd barely ever seen on Alice's face. She threw a murderous glare at Conan and with an angry voice she said "liar!" she nearly spit it out. Ai understood now that this was the cannibal-Alice and though Conan seemed to know that and tried to treat her like that she saw a short hurt expression entered his eyes, then he suppressed it again but Alice talked on "We had a deal! Liar!"

"You wanted to eat me!" he justified himself but Alice turned her head pissed away from him what made some raindrops from her hair fly through the air. "Deal is deal! And by the way, don't tell me you didn't enjoy it" Alice added and Ai saw Conan's face becoming slightly red "stop that both of you!" Ai interrupted them and the enchained Alice and Conan exchanged angry glares. "We still need to find the remedy, so stop acting like that!" Unwillingly Conan nodded and seemed to retain his calmness. "Yeah, right… So Alice we need you to tell us everything about cannibals."

"Oh" Alice started and put on a thoughtful expression and tone "let's see, we are pale and eat flesh… oh and we DON'T TALK TO LIARS!" Again she turned away from him as far as her chains allowed her and Ai saw Conan giving her an annoyed glare. "No matter as a human or a cannibal, you can be such a pighead" he said angry and Ai slowly made some steps up to Alice. Conan was right, even as a cannibal she was still Alice, deep in there she was herself and if Ai would focus on that she maybe could be able to talk to her. "So you'd talk to me?" Ai asked and met the eyes of her friend that scanned her interested. Then Alice nodded agreeing, like a stubborn child whose mother had just offered her a tradeoff.

"But not for free" Alice added and Ai who'd kneeled down onto the wet ground to the enchained girl tilted her head. "What do you want?"

"A deal" Alice declared chirping and threw a short, provoking glare at Conan and then looked back at Ai with her kind eyes. "What deal?" Ai asked but Conan interrupted them, shaking his head. "I know your deals, you won't eat me."

"You're really uppish" Alice snarled and Conan hesitated "I'm done with you. I threw an eye on them." Alice turned her head over to the detective boys and back to Ai. "Oh and what about _'I don't want to hurt others' _and _'you're the only one I want to eat'_?" Conan asked and Ai thought she heard a trace of jealousy in his voice. Alice blushed "tsk, I changed my opinion. So here the deal: For every answer I give you I get one of them." And licking her lips she added "I want Genta first."

Ai shook her head calmly "no."

"But…!" Alice said disappointed but Ai kept shaking her head. "You tell us what you know… everything. And in reward you get me."

"Hey wait!" Conan interrupted but Alice nodded after she'd thought about it. "Fine, so no matter if it helps you or not, I get you…?" Ai nodded too and some cold drops of water ran down her neck "right."

Alice beamed "see? This is how you make a deal!" she said and poked out her tongue at Conan who grabbed Ai's arm and pulled her some feet away. "Do you know what you did? She's going to kill you! This is not Alice!" he insisted and both looked back at Alice who concerned herself with snapping after a bug that flew close her face and Ai saw Conan's look turning half amused and half sad. "If it works we need to make sure she swallows the remedy before I need to deliver my part." Ai said and wrapped her cardigan closer around her body, the rain had increased and she started freezing.

Slowly both walked back and started to question Alice. She told them about the pain she had while changing and about the strength she had now and that she still felt it increasing. Also she told them that she could remember everything from her past, the only thing she couldn't tell anymore was how she _felt_ before she turned into a cannibal, but except of this she seemed to remember everything. When they started to ask her why she wanted to eat people she hesitated more often. She told them that she was simply hungry and that nothing else tasted good anymore, but also the flesh she'd eaten so far tasted bad. Not rotten as normal food tasted to her, but just not good.

"The other cannibals told me flesh only tastes good when you actually hunt for it, but since there was no one in the school I don't know if it's true."

"You can understand them?" Conan asked and Alice replied "Yes, kinda" in a short way she used whenever Conan asked her something.

"But if you disliked flesh you don't have to hunt, why do you actually wanted to eat Conan?" Ai asked and Alice hesitated again, looking embarrassed. "Before I actually eat the dead body parts I knew they'd taste bad just because of their smell, but when I smelled Conan I could tell he would taste better, like the cannibals had said."

"And why don't you want to eat him anymore?" Ai asked and pointed at Conan, she had this unpleasant feeling and she needed to get rid of it now, it had kept increasing since they talked. "It's not just because of the deal, right? At least it was me who actually interrupted you." Alice thought about this for a moment and then she nodded. As far as the chains allowed her to she sat up against the shed and looked at Conan.

"Maybe I was a little wrong with calling them… well us _'cannibals'_ back then; we actually only like human flesh, but not cannibal flesh." Ai froze and she saw Conan leaning exhausted against the shed. "I'm sorry" Alice said "this wasn't my plan, but you didn't let me eat him." Silence rushed over them only interrupted by the gentle sound of the rain around. They all knew what this meant. The reason why Alice wasn't interested in eating Conan anymore was easy, she'd infected him. The disease was transmitted through saliva, so he'd been infected the moment she kissed him.

"So most likely you'll think about things a little different in… I think half an hour." Alice declared and Ai's eyes widened and she glared over to Conan "half an hour? But…!"

"I know" Alice nodded "I took me a lot longer but you know… APTX4869 seemed to have changed the disease, I'm stronger and smarter than the other cannibals, but that also means infections transferred by me spread faster."

Conan cursed. "Be grateful" Alice simply said "you won't have to suffer like I had to, since my body already changed the disease for APTX4869 infected-people." And suddenly a lunatic smile curled her lips and her voice grew gentler and excited „do you get what that means? You will most likely be even stronger and smarter than me! Not to speak of what we can do together with the others!" She laughed a laughter Ai was afraid would chase her even in her dreams.

"Not if we can prevent this" Conan said surprisingly calm. "We will find a remedy and we will heal this disease, don't worry." And though Alice's laughter faded Ai was sure she wasn't too worried at this moment.

"Keep an eye on the kids ok?" Conan asked and when Ai looked at him she saw him rubbing his eyes under the glasses. "Huh… but…!" Ai began but he shook his head "I'll question her on, think about a remedy and seriously… you don't want to see her like that anymore." Ai threw a worried and at the same time doubtful look at him and opened her mouth to argue with him, but then she nodded and turned away. It was the first time in her life she'd listen to someone who simply tried to protect her from something. Usually she'd do everything to avoid someone chaperoning her but this time she simply agreed. She didn't want to stay with the cannibal-Alice. She preferred to think about the Alice she knew when she thought about her… just in case her memory would be everything left of Alice.

Ai threw a last glance back over her shoulder. She saw Conan sitting down beneath Alice who turned away from him. Conan ran his hand fretful through his wet hair and Ai looked ahead again. She took seat beneath Ayumi and kept an eye out for an approaching police car while she listened to the sound of the sleeping kids.

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><p>[Conan]<p>

The young man was walking fretfully through the rooms of the dark house. He felt fluffy carpet beyond his feet and a pleasant warmth around him that must come from a heating. Though all this made him feel comfortable he felt hounded. He was walking fast, not running but he didn't stop, he couldn't… even the thought about stopping and standing still was ridicules.

His blue eyes were barely able to spot anything. The house was dark but he never ran into something, he was far too familiar with this house to run into something, even when he wasn't able to see anything clearly through the darkness. Ever and anon he was able to see a thing because the light coming through the windows illuminated them. Doors he had no interest in opening, pictures of people he once knew, pieces of the wallpaper that seemed somehow run-down. From the corner of his eye he saw his own reflection in every window he passed by. This 17-year old man, wearing a blue suit that looked slightly battered.

As soon as the question why he was walking that fast, came to his mind, he stopped. Exhausted he leaned against the wall of the endless corridor he was walking through and ran his hand over his forehead. He didn't really thought of anything; pieces of thoughts appeared in his mind and vanished again. He didn't even know his own name, not that he cared about it, he was just fine the way it was. A sudden scream made him wince. An unknown and choking feeling appeared within him, a feeling of fear. Again this scream. It was a female voice, high and young and it screamed a word… a name "SHINICHI!"

Shinichi straightened up, this was his name, he couldn't tell why but he knew it from the way the woman shouted it. "SHINICHI tasukete!" He started to run. This woman needed help though he didn't know her, he knew he was the only one who could help her. He rushed through the corridors of the house up to the place he guessed the screams to come from but when he felt he was really close, the screams stopped. _"Hello?"_ he wanted to shout but he couldn't, his voice wasn't doing what he wanted it to do.

"Does it hurt?" he winced. Again a female voice had spoken but this time it was a much deeper voice. Also it sounded calm, nearly cruel and older. But what really caught his attention was that the voice hadn't spoken very loud, he was close to them. After he'd made some further steps he heard a whimpering, this was the high voice again; they must be together somewhere. He heard a ripping sound and a horrible scream by the high voice. "I asked does-it-hurt?" the deep voice asked insisting and pronounced the last three words especially frightening.

Shinichi knew he was close to them; again he walked around a corner of the endless corridor in the house and was now in a corridor with millionth of doors. "Hai… hai!" the high voice whimpered again then a new ripping sound followed by a scream "Haiii! It hurts! It hurts!" He tried to open a door to his left, it was locked. He ran to a door to his right, locked too. He ran on, he couldn't tell why but he knew they would be in an unlocked room.

"And do you want me to… stop?" the dark voice asked and chirped the last word. "SHINICHIII!" the high voice screamed again and Shinichi heard it was crying in pain while a new ripping was audible. Shinichi was trying to open door after door but he failed, while the ripping and screaming went on. Why wasn't the high voice simply telling the deep voice to stop? And what had the high voice had done to deserve this torture?

Finally a door opened. Shinichi could push down the handle and open the door; he knew he'd now enter the room the two women would be in. He heard the whimpering now clear and as soon as he'd fully opened the door into the room he saw it. A little girl, not older than 7 was cowering on the floor, shivering and whimpering. The whole room was smeared with blood and even though the girl had turned her back at Shinichi he saw how injured she was. She looked like a carnivore had tried to rip her apart, scratched, bite marks and wound covered her body and Shinichi understood that the ripping sound must have been the animal that bit the girl.

Fast he looked around in the room, it was empty. No furniture, no pictures, and no windows, just the old wallpaper and carpet both smeared with blood and the shivering girl sitting in the middle of the room. Why didn't he know she'd been in here? ...How long had she been tortured and screamed for him to help her? Shinichi walked up to her. "I'm here, I'll rescue you, don't worry." The girl's whimpers faded. While Shinichi walked closer to her he saw that she was wearing a simple white dress that was also looked battered and was covered with blood. Her curly brown hair was messy tied together with a white bow and hid her face. "Ne, who did this to you? Where is she?"

The girl slowly sat up while he knelled down to her; she was so small. With her hands wrapped around her body she turned around to Shinichi and he had to suppress the urge to back off when the girl raised her head. She bared a lunatic smile and a bloody mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. "I'm here, liar" the girl said with the deep female voice.

Conan screamed and sat up, his heart was pounding fast in his chest and he was sweating. It took himself some time to understand he'd dreamed. He blinked and ran his hand fretfully over his face that felt different than usual.

"Here" a female voice said and a hand appeared in front of his eyes that was holding his glasses. He looked up; he was sitting on the schoolyard leaning against the shed and looked up into Alice's face, her hair was wet of the pouring rain. She was standing in front of him; looking interested and he reached for his glasses and put them on again. "You fell asleep" Alice explained and looked at him while Conan stood up, still feeling hounded. "Did you..." he began but she shook her head.

"What? Turn a trick on you that made you fall asleep? No, you simply seemed to be tired… are you still yourself?" Conan hesitated and then he nodded. Obviously she was wondering if the disease affected him yet. "You had a nightmare" she continued since he didn't answer anymore "you mumbled a lot of stuff." He nodded again and thought about the feeling he'd have while looking at the monster girl that had literally torn herself apart. "Did I appear within it?" she asked and let her hair slightly fall into her face. Conan shook his head and she smiled. "You're a poor liar" Alice snickered and suddenly Conan glared at her.

"Where are your chains?" he asked Alice tilted her head and blinked surprised "oh. I broke them and put them away" she pointed at a bunch of chains on the ground near the shed. He rubbed his head, so her power had increased again. "Want me to put them on again?" she asked lowly and Conan blinked. "That wouldn't help if you can take them off whenever you want, right?" he said and she nodded then sat down on the wet ground beneath him. Conan looked at this girl. She was looking thoughtfully up at the sky, her skin was pale but except of this she was still looking like Alice.

"You will be that strong too… soon" she mumbled still looking at the clouds above. "Not if I can find a remedy" he replied and adjusted his glasses, he was still thinking about her question… he'd simply nodded but was he still himself? "Why?" he turned around to her and saw that she'd brought her face really close to his. "Why… what?" he asked, slowly his voice grew angry. He felt fretful, he couldn't think of a remedy, he missed Alice and this cannibal didn't stop asking. "Why do you want to find a remedy? Just think about how much easier it would be to get this black organization when we're like this."

He grabbed her shoulders and saw her wincing for a moment; then she looked at him again. "I don't want to hurt people and I don't want you to hurt people! No matter if it could help us getting back our old bodies, I won't choose this…" he hesitated and turned around but she didn't give up "you don't want to choose… what?"

He sighed and said "I don't choose my old body over you, the real you. And you wouldn't either if you'd be yourself." He saw her from the corner of his eyes; she was blushing. He turned around to her and hoped for a trace of his Alice. She smiled her old smile and said "don't worry, maybe 15 minutes until you will understand me, give this change a chance."

He shook his head, this was hopeless. Nothing of Alice seemed to be left and if she was right he'd bee the same soon… he just needed to find a remedy. "Are you really going to eat Ai?" Conan asked after a break of silence while he tried to think of a question that could help them to find a remedy, he couldn't believe he'd fallen asleep. She looked at him again. "I'm not sure yet" she admitted "the sooner I get used to hunting and killing people the better."

Conan blinked, that rang a bell in his mind. "Ne, you said the cannibals say flesh only tastes good when you hunt for it?" Alice nodded; she didn't seem to understand what he had just thought of. "And the candy-bar tasted horrible to you?" he asked insisting and again she nodded.

"And then the coke light…" Conan beamed; "maybe I've got it!" he said and ran over to the others. Alice stood back at the shed.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E)<em>


	14. Sunrises

**_Chapter 14: Cannibals like sunrises_**

_Feeling-time! :) You see, whenever little cannibals had a lot of fun with scaring, eating and kissing other people they need a break and become melancholic. So I hope you don't mind this chapter to contain a lot of fluffy-melancholic-feelings ^.~_

_Oh and also some horror etc mixed in :} as a matter of course_

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><p><p>

[Alice]

Alice watched Conan running over to the others. To Ai and the detective boys and this Akito. She smiled a tired smile and got up from the wet ground. Maybe 1 hour ago she'd tried the same he did now. Ignore the disease that runs through your veins; try to push away every thought of blood and every wish to taste some flesh. She turned away from the shed and walked up to the school; she knew no one was watching her. She could still remember her wish to eat him; she still wished she could have done it. If she had succeeded both would have been dead by now, he had been eaten and she'd no further reason to stay alive, but at least she'd know how he tasted.

She sighed regretting, now that he was slowly becoming one of them the urge to eat him was gone, it felt just like she'd never changed. It wasn't that the taste of his flesh would have been disgusting, it just scared her and she saw no need in trying… just like before, she simply wanted to have him around. "Well, not while he's like this" she mumbled contended and ran her hand over the rough wall of the school while she walked around it. As long as he was still changing she would wait, she would wait until he was what she saw in him. Of course he didn't knew it yet; she hadn't either while she'd been in this state, but now she knew it. He would be strong, stronger than he was now. He would be smart, smarter than every cannibal ever was. And he would lead them.

She hummed while she had passed by the school and walked over to the fence that partitioned the schoolyard from the city. The rain was still covering her body and if she hadn't felt this numb it may have been cold. She climbed up the fence and, swung her legs over it when she'd reached its top and hopped down afterwards. When she glared back she saw Kobayashi-sensei glaring out of a window up to her and she gave her an encouraging smile. "You will be ok" she said lowly and turned away from the fence. "They will heal you, I know they will. I saw this look on his face. He found a remedy."

And happily she walked away, over the street and up the sideway. Once a drunk, old man appeared in front of her, wavering down the street and babbling a song Alice could blurry remember. He greeted her and she nodded and smiled like a good cannibal-girl should." No alcoholic flesh as long as I'm in the body of a kid" she chirped and dandered on, down the sideway up to the dark city.

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><p><p>

[Conan]

Conan rushed over to the others, his feet splashed over the wet ground and several time he nearly lost balance but he didn't slow down. Sunrise was close and he had no time left to waste. It was that easy that it nearly made him angry how long it had taken him. The last time they thought they had a remedy they had been this close, but now he got what they'd done wrong and hardly breathing but satisfied he'd reached the gate Ai and the others were waiting at, except of Ai everyone fell asleep.

"Sugar!" he gasped smiling and Ai blinked at him. "How did you call me?" she asked pissed but he shook his head "the remedy. Sugar! Simple, sweet, white, sugar." She got up and looked at him seemingly thinking this through. "Look, Lilly said the candy-bar tasted horrible, of course it did; it contained sugar." Now Ai's look brightened "I see. That's why they only like flesh of people who ran away from them. Running makes the body release adrenaline and adrenaline makes the body use all the sugar, that's how they got rid of it." Conan smiled satisfied "and that's why the coke worked back then in your experiments but not here. Genta gave me Coke light, it's sugar free." Ai nodded still lost in thoughts. "Yeah, that makes sense. That was the reason Lilly needed to seduce you, she didn't want to risk to hunt you since you may be able to escape, so temptation was the safest way to make your body release adrenaline…"

Conan hesitated embarrassed "please stop talking about it like it was a chemical process" he mumbled but Ai smirked "why? It is. Arousal makes the heart beat faster, the brain…" "Ok ok I got it!" he interrupted her and she stopped though her smirk didn't fade. A loud sound that cut through the monotone pouring of the rain made both of them wince. "Sirens!" they mumbled and rushed to the gate. Conan could hear the detective boys and Akito slowly waking up and then they could see it, the blue and red flashing of the police cars and the sound of the sirens approaching. Their whole group beamed and Ayumi and Mitsuhiko even cheered. Conan turned around to the shed. Finally the police arrived, they would be able to administer the sugar to the cannibals in school and also Alice could be healed in time.

"H…Haibara?" he mumbled still glaring at the shed. "Have you seen Lilly?" Ai turned around, still smiling happily, now this smile vanished. "N… no… She was sitting by the shed… I mean." Both cursed. "Tell the police what we found out; make sure they heal everyone in the school."

"What are you going to do? You don't know where she is! And by now she will have nearly all her power and I doubt a hit with a hammer would even bother her!" He shook his head "Genta, can I get a candy-bar?" he asked and toke the bar from the confused Genta. "Sunrise is maybe some minutes away, we can't wait… and by the way I have an idea where she may could have went."

He ran up to the fence behind the school, the only way Alice could have used for her escape and Ai shouted "don't forget you need to take the remedy, too! You don't have much time left!" but he was already too far away.

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><p><p>

[Ai]

Ai was sure she would never forget this feeling. She felt all wet and cold from the rain, her body switched fast between fatigue since she lacked sleep and excitement over the past happenings. Even years later she could clearly remember how the police men arrived; Megure, Sato, Takagi, Chiba, Shiratori; and many more had come. Soon the opened the gate, Ai told them what they needed to know and after a while of unbelieving staring they all started to squall the school and heal everyone. Judging from what Takagi told Ai the cannibals lost consciousness as soon as they got the sugar injection and the first who woke up had no memory about the past night what was, how everyone agreed, most likely the best for them. In this night teachers had killed students, friends had infected friends and no one was to blame but a boy who was handed over to the police men; likely he wouldn't have to go to prison, he was still a child and he never planned this to happen.

Looking back at this night Ai decided they could be happy; it could have ended much worse. All in all 17 people killed; 43 infected and all healed… well except the two kids of course who had left the schoolyard while their disease started to connect itself to a drug called APTX4869. Sometimes the people who do their best to safe lives have to deal with the hardest fate. And even though Ai thought this wasn't fair it was most likely the same like with the number of dead people… they could be happy; it could have ended much worse.

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><p><p>

[Conan]

Through the darkness and the pouring rain the young boy rushed in a speed that clearly showed that his body started to form inhuman skills. His blue eyes were barely able to spot anything. The city was dark, but he never got lost; he was far too familiar with this city to get lost, even when he wasn't able to see anything clearly through the darkness. Ever and anon he was able to see a thing because the light by the slowly rising sun illuminated it. Streets he had no interest in walking down, blurred pictures of people he felt an awkward urge to hurt, pieces of his everyday life that seemed somehow run-down. From the corner of his eye he saw his own reflection in every shop- or house window he passed by. This 7-year old boy, wearing a blue suit that looked slightly battered.

He ran on. This all reminded him worryingly about his nightmare. A dark, endless place he walked through; feeling all hounded because the time was working against him. And even though it was nearly silent he heard the screams of the girl, of Lilly, in his head calling for help. In his nightmare he'd been too late; the cannibal had won, it had bruised Alice and nothing was left of her but this monster.

The place he guessed her to be was far away, 6 miles from the school but with his new speed he could make it. Again he pushed his body to run faster, he felt his pace quickened every time he wanted it to, but also this disease started to increase. Once he ran past a cinema, many people were leaving it and it had taken him all his strength not to stop. In his mind a film started where those people who had left a horror movie would have been attacked by a 7-year old cannibal-boy and it had amused him.

Finally Conan saw it, a fence maybe some feet away that prevented he people coming from the city to fall down a grass covered hillside. Just when he left the city behind, he saw her. A small girl standing at this fence looking at the horizon behind the city below the hillside, where the morning sun slowly aroused; her skirt and hair were waving in the wind. He slowed down and said "I knew I would find you here."

She didn't turn around even though he was sure she'd heard him. "No matter how afraid you… were of highs" he begun, not sure if this fear of hers was also a fear of this cannibal "you always loved this place. You came here the first day you were in Japan and you come here every time something bad happens." Finally he'd caught up with her; he leaned against the fence too and looked at the sun. "Nothing bad happened today really" she mumbled but he shook his head "you came here when your dad told you he wouldn't be able to visit you. You came here when you found out that your mother is a member of the black organization… so I knew you'd come here today, too.

She smiled, still staring at the horizon. "So you came here to make me swallow the remedy?" she asked, Conan nodded and got out the candy-bar. "Did you know that my favorite word in English is 'limbo'?" she continued. "Not the dance… I'm talking about the place evil people go to… I like this word, because every morning I wake up, I wonder why I have to live in it… what I did to deserve living in limbo…"

Conan lowered the chocolate… her voice sounded calm but something within it made his heart clench, just like she wanted to suppress a great sadness. "Every morning I wonder, you know?" she continued "why I can't live in a normal family… why I can't be a Japanese girl… why I can't stop being this different… why I have a boy back in England who I have to marry as soon as I turn 18…" she finally turned around to him and judging from the tone of her voice he'd thought she was crying, but her eyes were all dry. "This is all over now, you know? Now that I'm this strong I can stop wondering and… go on. And you could, too!" She made some steps up to him. "Imagine how much easier it'd be to defeat the black organization when we're like this? We could run away and be Lilly and Shinichi again! ...Don't you want this at all?"

"Of course I do" he replied and now he was the one to stare at the horizon. "But if I have to choose between getting my old body back… or getting the real you back…. Well, let's say my body wouldn't stand a real chance." He saw her blushing "what if taking the remedy is our death sentence? What if it means these black men will kill us? Don't tell me you didn't thought about it! You didn't take the remedy yet and you can't tell me you just did this because you wanted to run fast enough. Tell you what… you did it because you wanted to enjoy this feeling of power at least a little longer, or maybe just because you wanted to find out if you're able to fight it" she closed and gave him a tired smile. He threw a glance at her and finally he nodded "right… it's pretty captivating to feel this strong, but the assurance that this is just a result of a disease affecting body and brain brings one back to the ground."

She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder again, just like she did back then in the classroom of the 3rd grade. "So you really want to force me back into my old life?" she asked with a voice like this was a normal question, just like the decision was fully up to him. "No" he simply answered "I won't force you, I basically wanted to when I started to search for you but now… I'm just here to offer you the chance." He broke the candy-bar into two pieces. "Come back with me, back into the life of Conan and Alice trying to defeat a criminal organization… or stay like this, I won't stop you from escaping from this life you described as limbo." She looked up to him. "What? No last words? No more lies you'd stop my life from being a mess?"

Conan hesitated "I… can't stop it from being a mess… I'm not sure if I would, even if I could." And because she tilted her head he added "You are strong enough to deal with your life, you've always been. All this made you become the person you are today… how should I ever wanted to change that? E_very horrible thing that happens makes a person become the person one is today._ You once said that to someone who wanted to kill himself. And that's why you should go back to your old life… and that's why I have to go back too, because we're the only ones who can live our lives."

"But I'm not killing myself" she said "it's the other way round, cannibals don't die. "No?" he asked "I thought about why cannibals want to eat living people… people with adrenaline rushing through their body. I think it's just because cannibals are dead. They are strong, cruel and dead and they miss living; they miss it that much that they tried to annex a piece of live by eating the living."

After a long moment of silence she raised her head and smiled. "If you ever become tired of being a detective, you should try yourself as a politician. Gosh, you're a natural in talking." She snickered and reached for one half of the candy-bar. "I will go back, maybe because you're right, or maybe for my own reasons… just remember what I tell you now: It's-not-over."

He blinked and she raised the chocolate. "I saw something within you, a strength… this pure and overwhelming… no remedy will be able to suppress it forever and when it breaks free I want to be around… even when I'm just the mortal woman you know and even if you kill my weak self, I will be there and enjoy it."

With these words she swallowed her half of the bar and Conan swallowed his. Nothing happened.

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><p><em>Don't forget to leave a review to help me improve :) (Honestly, leave one or get eaten ;E<em>


	15. Living

**_Chapter 15: Cannibals like living_**

_We're finally there :) The end of the story is close and I want to thank everyone who made it till here. I hope you will give me a final review of my work and look forward to my next stories. At this point I can only quote Alice/Lilly_: "It's-not-over."

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><p>[Alice]<p>

Soon after their talk dawn came. They walked back to the school and had a talk with Ai who told them that everyone seemed to be alright… well except the 17 dead and their families. It was 1 week after this night when Lilly Bankroft, now calling herself Alice opened her eyes.

The past week had been quiet uneventful. Conan and Alice had told Ran they would spend a week with Conan's mother to recover. In fact they locked themselves away in Shinichi's house. The remedy had done its work. Slowly the cannibals within them had vanished. Conan, who hadn't been infected for too long had been back to normal after two days. He told her the power had vanished and together with this also the urge to kill people, also he had regained color. He stood with her in the house since it took her a lot longer to get back to normal.

Alice turned around under the blanket, it was just 6 a.m. but she couldn't go back to sleep. The last week had been good. They couldn't risk leaving the house since they told Ran they weren't in town and had spent their time in other ways. Alice had started a spring-cleaning and Conan used the time to rearrange all the letters and request people sent to him to get help with cases. The first days they did their best to avoid each other, the cannibal-Alice was still disappointed. Just around night 3 Alice was herself enough to enter the library where he was working.

From this night the rest of the week turned out to be great. After ages they could be themselves again. There was no need in faked childish behavior and Alice couldn't remember being this close to Shinichi ever before. For a moment she watched his face while he was sleeping. Satisfied she recognized no need in eating him and so she got out of the bed. She looked back and couldn't avoid grinning. They had spent the last two nights together, of course they were only sleeping, at least they were still kids _(get your thoughts out of gutter ;P). _With a red face she left the room, at least having the bodies of 7-year old had the advantage that his bed was big enough for both of them.

She had just decided to prepare some breakfast on their last day alone when she passed by a mirror. As usual she started to smooth her hair that remained curly, but this time when she looked at her reflection she was satisfied. Her teeth had grown back to the size of human teeth and her skin wasn't white anymore. She smiled and walked downstairs. She and Conan could still remember every second of this horrible night. The other cannibals had lost their memory… and Alice envied them for this. She still felt the fear of being infected, the pain that rushed through her body and all the other feelings she had felt while nearly killing Conan.

A little less happy she entered the kitchen. There were still things she was glad remembering. She could hear Conan in her head how he made this cannibal-her swallow the remedy. Either way she had to live with this memory and she would make it. There was just one thing that kept her worried. The morning when they took the remedy she said _"__It's-not-over." _… she could remember saying it, even though she had no clue why she said it. This was the only memory that was locked away and the harder she tried to remember the further it slipped away. She just remembered the feeling she had had while saying it. She had been sure she was right… this cannibal-her had been 100% sure she would meet the cannibal-Conan… one day.

She sighed and started to cook some coffee for them. That was ridicules, it was over and even if something should happen they would be ok, of course they would now that they knew the remedy and the police locked the book of occult away so it would never be stolen again. Satisfied she poured the hot coffee in two cups and adding a bit more sugar than usual, just to make sure.

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><p>-[The End] -<p>

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